The Birth of Winter
by tangledribbons
Summary: All Hades wants is a woman to accept him, but rejection makes him cruel. Persephone wishes for a handsome man to marry, one worthy of her beauty. Zeus wants power, and will stop at nothing to get it. Demeter wants to save her daughter from a cruel fate.
1. Introduction

An Introduction

He was watching her again.

Watching as an errant breeze caused her thick, fair hair to be blown away from her elegant neck, blue eyes flashing with mirth in the sun which bathed the entire meadow in which she sat. Her olive skin was glowing with beauty and perfection. Just as she always had been, at least to him.

He watched as her head arched backwards, her face transformed by laughter, and imagined that it was he himself who had made her laugh this way. That it was he who had made her happy, and that it was he that she loved. It was a fantasy which had plagued his mind lately, ever since he first caught a glimpse of the beautiful woman (though still technically a girl, she was a goddess, and beautiful, and therefore a woman in his eyes), and as much as he tried to point out to himself the absurdity that a woman like her would ever, nay _could _ever love a man such as himself, he could not quench the flicker of hope in his heart. This hope told him that she was different. That she was a _goddess, _for goodness sake, and would not care about the frivolities which gripped the women of earth; their obsession with the handsome, the dashing, the heroes, the Zeus's of the human realm. She would not mind that he was not pleasant to look at, that he had a terrible temper and a cynical nature. She would see through this, she would see the man he used to be, and she would love him all the more for his hardships.

"ARGH!" He tore himself away from the window with an agonised cry and began pacing the chamber, disgusted with himself for being so _weak_. This was so foreign to him, these feelings, this hope. For so many years he had ruled over his world, allowing no mercy to the fools he dealt with, giving full reign to his crueller, sadistic streaks. He took pleasure in the suffering of mortals, laughing when they tried to plead with him, when they told him that there had been a mistake, that they were good people really.

He paused in his pacing beside a basin of water, studying his own reflection, looking for reassurance that he was still himself, that she had not permanently changed him, although he felt sure that she must have. At first he was surprised, there was the same long nose, bent from being broken in a long ago battle, there were the same stern eyes, glaring back at him with anger and confusion. The same thin lips, contorted into the same snarl. The same thin black hair falling into his face. Where then, had she made her mark? For he was certain that she had changed him somehow, and was not willing to admit that it was merely on the inside that she had altered him, in his heart and in his throat (for he could not seem to breathe as he looked at her). But wait, there, a softening in the brow, the angry frown lines just slightly less pronounced, and the snarl slightly less vicious. For a second he felt a flash of joy that he had found her, somebody who could accept him as he was, who could love him as he was, who could make him the man he was, but the fantasy passed quickly and reality sunk in.

A bellow passed through his lips as he swung his fist down, cracking the basin in two with the impact. NO, he would not let her do this to him. Goddess she may be, but she was still a woman, and he had learnt long ago that he could not trust their kind. He would not allow himself to be weakened, to be distracted. He had work to do! Mortals to punish, souls to damn and torture, lives to ruin! A growl sounded deep in his throat; he was a god and he _would not _allow himself to care for her.

He was Hades and he did not love her.

* * *

'Your beauty will be your curse', her mother had once told her in a fit of tears, when she was but a child, and as she sat in the meadow, laughing with the flowers and the nymphs, she thought of this warning from long ago. She picked up her mirror from the floor, and stared into its depths. Blue eyes stared back, framed by long, thick, dark lashes, and she examined her full, rosy cheeks before curving the corner of her plump lips into a smile; "but you are no curse, are you, dear face?" she murmured to herself, and then threw back her head, laughing. She was talking to herself, to her own face, how ridiculous! She sighed and lay back, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face and of the cool breeze, although it insisted on catching strands of her white blonde hair and depositing them in her mouth.

But that was the least of her worries right now, she remembered with a frown. Who was he, she wondered. Was he handsome? The last had not been, nor the one before that. "Why must I get married anyway?" she had asked her father last time he had tried to introduce her to a man (king, god, prince, farmer, they were all the same to her- all men, united by a common love of her beauty, her charm). Her father had looked confused, and merely answered, "for you must be a queen, and beauty such as yours is a powerful weapon". She had not understood fully, and he had laughed at her, but the facts remained the same, she must marry for her father, and nobody refuses the King of gods, not even she, who refused all others.

Well, nobody except her mother, she mused, for her mother had refused her father from the start, not wishing her daughter to be married so soon, for so poor a reason as power. But what did she know, she thought, suddenly angry. Her mother had always been jealous of the men flocking after Persephone, always paranoid that Zeus would prefer her daughter to herself. And now she did not wish power for her daughter either, she did not want her daughter to be the queen she deserved to be. Demeter had grown bitter in recent months, and retreated to the realm of humans, refusing to see Zeus, Persephone, or any others she used to love and cherish. _Her loss, _Persephone thought spitefully, _I shall have to take this kingdom for my own, and show her that beauty and power is not a curse, but a gift to be exploited. _Giggling to herself at this thought, the young maiden jumped up from where she had been lying, and ran off towards the top of the mountain to visit her father, chattering nymphs trailing after her.

High on a mountain, a tall muscled man lounged in a golden throne. His perfect face was surrounded by a halo of white-blonde hair, the exact same as that of Persephone's, but his ice-blue eyes held a steely glint which his daughter's could never possess.

* * *

Zeus was a proud man. He had a beautiful daughter, a beautiful kingdom; he was worshipped by millions, and had control of the world. And yet he was not happy, for she had left him.

He had had many wives before her, and would have many now that she was gone and yet he could not seem to forget her parting words; "you will regret this, Zeus". No, it was not that she was gone which had discontented him so (for he had not loved her, merely wanted her for power and beauty, for they were all he understood), but that he was sure that she knew something that Zeus didn't, and she had refused to tell him. It infuriated him, and had he his way, she would have been tortured until she spoke, wife or no, goddess or not. For nobody denied Zeus. Alas, he could not find her, and did not have the time to search for her, busy as he was with his plans for his daughter, Persephone.

He would be lying if he said that he had not been tempted to keep the girl for himself, for her beauty was rivalled by none other, and her innocent charm knew no bounds. But tempting as it had been, he knew an opportunity when he saw it. His plan had been simple to start, sell her to the highest bidder, be it god, king or peasant. He who could impress the god king would win his daughter. However, he had forgotten how wilful the girl was, and she had refused all offers as of yet. This one was too ugly, this too shy, this other did not appreciate her beauty fully. And so it went on, until he was thoroughly sick of his own daughter and was beginning to believe that his wife had been right, for he was indeed regretting his decision to marry off his daughter. She was making him look like a fool; she thought herself his equal, and that had to be changed, he fumed. He was not her father, he was her king. He had allowed this to go on long enough.

Just then, an idea struck his mind, and a smile tugged on his lips. She was making him look like a fool, just as Demeter had. And though he could not punish Demeter, his daughter was well within his reach. Of course, he had promised her a husband with power, and he could not deny her that. His slight smile transformed into a nasty grin, and a chuckle slipped through perfect, white teeth. Oh no, he would not deny her that, in fact, perhaps he would give her to the one man with almost as much power as he, himself, had, the one man who embodied all that the girl hated in a man, the anti-thesis of her idea of a husband.

After all, who better to marry his daughter than his brother?

* * *

Deep in a forest, a mare the colour of wheat ran. It was all she had done lately. She had run through canyons, over mountains, across deserts, and swum through seas. She passed all forms of animals, all types of people, all number of gods, but she stopped, or even slowed, for no-one. Not even her beloved could sway her from her course.

Actually, especially not her beloved. The surrounding wildlife scattered as she let out an enormous whinny (had she been in human form, this outburst would perhaps have instead been in the shape of a few choice swear words. Her husband. _Why _had he not listened to her? She knew her daughter, and she knew her husband. It was only natural that she knew exactly what would happen if they carried on with this ridiculous plan. And after all of her careful protections.

She had tried, ever since she saw him staring that first time they met to keep her daughter away from the king of the underworld. He, just as any other man Persephone had ever met, had fallen in love in an instant. And yet, unlike most other men (who were easily dealt with), Hades was powerful. If he wanted Persephone, he would have her. And she had a horrible vision of Zeus helping his brother to get his prize.

_Prize. _She snorted again, hooves pounding the ground, crushing anything that was unfortunate enough to find itself in her path. _Prize. _As though somebody was holding a competition and her daughter was to be given away as the trophy. Of course, she had no doubt that that was exactly what Zeus saw it as. Persephone was a way to power for him, after all.

The nagging guilt which had been eating away at her heart ever since she had fled from the mountain of the gods, and taken refuge in the human world, suddenly flared. She should be back there, protecting her daughter, saving her from this fate. But fate was the optimum word here, and although Demeter was by no means a Seer, she would be a fool not to have seen the hands of fate caressing Persephone ever since she had been a babe in her mother's arms. No, there was nothing that Demeter could do here, nothing but run, run and grieve and wait for news.

And so, she lowered her head, and galloped forwards, and anyone lucky enough to see her would notice the tears flying from the horse's eyes and hitting her flanks, where they soaked into the fur, becoming a part of the goddess once more. It would not do to leave any evidence of her passing behind, for if Zeus caught her, nothing, and no-one would be able to save her.

But this waiting! This not knowing, it was eating her heart, and the guilt of abandoning her flesh and blood doubled. She _had _to do something. And, just like that, she made up her mind. She would follow Hades footsteps and watch. But this time, she would be watching him, and waiting for her time.

Had anybody been watching, they would have been bewildered at the sight of the galloping mare suddenly stopping, a wild look in her eyes, before sprouting wings and setting off into the air.

A/N: This is my first time publishing anything on here, so please be nice (no flames, please :)), and I will be posting regularly, so yeah, I hope you're enjoy the story :)


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

Deep in the overgrown forests at the bottom of the mountain of the gods, was a cave. Deep and dark, it was little frequented by any of the beings who resided in this realm of wonders, and largely ignored and forgotten. Rays of light streaked through the surrounding trees, and dappled the clearing around the cave in sun.

Hades slunk across to the entrance of this cave, which marked the passing between the mountain of the gods and his own kingdom, the underworld. His eyes squinted as the sun hit them; he had spent years under the ground, seeing the outside worlds only through magical windows, used to spy on his brother. His skin was translucent in the light, his blue veins easy seen under the thin white layers, thickened blood sluggishly moving through them.

He moved back into the shadows. A mole retreating into its tunnel. The permanent scowl which graced his features deepened; what did his brother want that was so important? There were no wars, whether between gods or humans, neither were there any celebrations to be had. Not that he would be called for this anyway, the other gods hated him, and he them. A low growl escaped his throat at the thought of the others, of the betrayers. And _Zeus. _Zeus, who had everything, Zeus who was loved by all, Zeus who had Persephone. Zeus who had the audacity to send a summons for him, for him, Hades, king of the underworld! No, this would not be forgotten, he would have his revenge on his _perfect _brother if it cost him everything.

A snarl on his lips, he strode out of the cave, and into the clearing. He paused for just a second, and in the trees, a mare backed up slightly, hiding herself in the shadows, afraid she had been spotted so early on in her mission. But luck was on her side, and Hades passed on, his low, sneaking gait somewhat at odds with the bright, airy forest.

Hades journeyed quickly, anxious to leave this mountain of hate, and reached his destination before the day was over: Zeus' palace. It was a palace of no walls, but instead was constructed entirely of light and clouds and gold, the perfect setting for any hero, and yet not enough to properly show the extent of Zeus' wonder. _Pah, _Hades thought to himself bitterly, _wonder, indeed. More like hypocrisy. _

Keeping to the edges of the room, he skirted around all of his brother's friends, admirers and servants until he reached parallel with the throne. And there he was. Resplendent in a white robe, his hair falling to his shoulders in white- gold waves, a golden circlet placed upon his head. His olive skin was muscled, and his posture relaxed as he smiled lazily, occasionally taking a moment to accept a grape from the tray held beside him. It disgusted Hades, how everybody fawned on this man, this betrayer. How could they not see what he was? How could they have fooled themselves for so long?

Patented glare seated firmly in his eyes, Hades slowly made his way to his brother's side. It was the one power he had over his brother, to appear at his side without Zeus ever having noticed a thing. He liked to remind the god that, should he wish, Hades could kill him at any time, and Zeus would not have the time to fight back. Of course, this would be certain suicide for Hades, as he could not expect the other gods to simply let the murderer of their king go free, but he still enjoyed the unease it gave his brother. When one has so little, one takes what one is given.

"So, dear brother," Hades whispered into Zeus' ear, and although Zeus showed no outward reaction, a slightly quickened heartbeat was all that was needed to give Hades the satisfaction he needed, "what have you _summoned _me all this way for?" His voice was croaky, like that of a raven or a crow, and his breath stunk of the foul odour of death. It took a second for Zeus to regain his composure before answering, an effect none other but his brother could ever hope to have on him.

"Hades, it has been long since I have seen your face, but your words hurt my heart, is it too much to think that I merely had a wish to see my beloved brother?" And so the deception began; to all others, it would sound as though Zeus was acting as the loving king they expected him to be, but Hades knew the truth. He could see the glint in his brother's eye, the tension in his neck, and knew. He knew that Zeus needed something, no doubt to aid in a plan, another of his plots for power. As though being king of all gods was not power enough. Nothing was enough.

"_I see through you," _Hades hissed, his lips close to Zeus' ear, flecking it with spit as he spoke, "what do you want from me?" he asked louder, withdrawing his head, and moving around to the front of the throne. "What do you want that is so _very _important?" he questioned again.

"Please," Zeus called, rising up from where he sat, and spreading his hands out to the people before him, "dear friends, allow me a moment of privacy, I shall call you back shortly," he finished with a loving smile, as though he would miss each and every one of them when they were gone. Hades was, yet again, the only one who was not fooled by the act, and growled deep in his throat, repressing his anger as best as he could. His curiosity helped with this greatly, after all, he may as well find out what his brother's newest plot was before attempting to kill him.

"Now. I have a proposition for you, _brother,"_ Zeus smirked, "and trust me, you will be interested in this." Here, Zeus paused; lounging back down in his throne, and popped a grape into his mouth, smirk still firmly in place. "You may not know, living in a _cave_ as you do, but I have a daughter. She was born to Demeter, who was previously my wife, and she is widely considered the most beautiful being who ever graced this mountain, myself not included, of course."

Hades had not heard a word past 'daughter', and he had stopped breathing at this point also. Realising this, he took in a great, shuddering breath, which his brother, busy eating more grapes, luckily failed to notice. "And what, exactly, does this _girl _have to do with me?" he questioned, a snarl yet again firmly on his lips, desperate that his obsession (he _would not _call it love, for love it could not be) would not be discovered.

At this, Zeus stood, his previous smirk transformed into a full-blown grin as he faced his brother. Placing one hand on Hades shoulder (Hades shuddered at the unfamiliar feel of skin contact), Zeus looked him straight in the eyes.

"Why, absolutely everything, should you accept my offer, and I am certain that you will," there was no small hint of humour in Zeus' voice, in fact, he seemed to be restraining himself from laughing out loud. "In fact, should you accept my offer, she shall be your life, and you shall be hers. Should you accept my offer, she shall be your queen." After finishing his short speech (Zeus always had been this way- he would tease and beat around the bush before suddenly, bluntly divulging what he knew), he could no longer hold it in, and began laughing, an enormous, belly- laugh, which rung from his mouth in rich peals, echoing around the hall of light.

"Excuse me?" In comparison to the ringing laughter, Hades voice could not have been colder. His icy tones insufficient to show his true feelings, he threw Zeus' hand from his shoulder, and began to stalk away from him, intent on seeking again the solitude and safety of his cave. But a voice halted him, a voice that was, if possible, colder than his own, and yet infinitely sweeter.

"I must say, I have to concur with the disgust which appears to be radiating from my uncle at this very moment. What on earth do you mean by that? Me, be his queen? Is this some sort of joke, or have you just run out of young kings to offer me up to and decided to throw me out as scraps to the dogs?" Persephone's eyes flashed dangerously, showing a rare glimpse of the temper which usually lay dormant under her naive face.

"Persephone, my dear, so glad you could join us," Zeus called, voice warm and calm, in control as usual, even when faced with the source of all his troubles. "I was just putting forward a proposal to my dear brother, as I feel that the match of the two of you would be very prosperous for all the gods. Why, you may even find you have much in common with each other! Of course, you could always reject your future husband and go to join your mother, I am sure Demeter would be glad to have the company." At this mention of her name, a horse snickered quietly, as though daring Zeus to send Persephone to her, but it was not the right time yet, not quite yet.

"_So, _you shall exile your own daughter over a marriage? I am immortal, father! We can wait until the right king, or prince, or _anyone_ comes along, I shall wait a thousand years if I must! But you _shall not _force me to marry this man! The one man in the entire kingdom who you hate, who everyone hates! How in the world can anyone benefit from this?"

"SILENCE! I shall not stand for this disobedience, and you _will _marry him, you _will _obey me." Whilst Zeus was shouting at his daughter, both of them now displaying rare loss of control, so angry were they both, Hades merely stood, shocked to his core, though his face betrayed no emotion. Persephone, his beloved, would rather be alone for a thousand years than marry him. He had thought she was different, had thought that she would not betray him as others had, had thought that she would be able to love him, to accept him. But it seemed as though this was not the case. All at once, the numbness which had set in at her words disappeared, leaving an aching pain in his heart, and rage flashing through his skull. If getting what he wanted was a punishment for her, then all the better for him, but he _would _have her. She would be his queen, and he would rule her as he did any of his subjects. Yes, she would regret her outburst.

Silently, he slunk up behind the goddess, who was still too busy shouting at her father to have even remembered that Hades was still present. Placing a bony hand on her shoulder, he leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Come now, my dear, compose yourself, this is hardly a way to behave in front of your husband to be, now is it?" He added a slight growl to the end of his sentence, smiling slightly manically when he felt her jump beneath his fingers.

"Am I to take it that you wish to accept my offer, brother?" Zeus questioned, already, a smile playing on his lips, all arguments forgotten.

"NO! I do not care if he accepts or not, I will not be bartered like a common mule! Played with for your entertainment! Dear father, I feel I shall have to take you up on your previous offer. I shall give mother your love, or lack thereof," Persephone was gone almost before she finished her goodbye, she had wrenched herself away from Hades before he had a chance to answer Zeus, and was sprinting away before they could register what was happening. When they did realise what the woman was attempting to do however, they made their biggest mistake. They assumed that she would be unable to escape, after all, they were on top of the mountain, and all that was needed was for word to be sent out to capture her, and the other gods would gladly bring the renegade in for their kings. However, they did not realise that the mother Persephone was running to was so close by that, if they had been paying attention, they would have been able to hear her breathing.

And so, when her daughter made a desperate bid for freedom, Demeter decided that now was the time, that this one moment was the time to act, and act she did. Springing from her hiding place, newly grown wings spread wide, the mare ran to Persephone who instinctively jumped up onto her back, and with a push of hooves into earth, the two took to the sky.

A/N: Yay! For quick uploading :)


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Back in his cave at last, Hades fumed. As he fumed, he paced. The plan could work, he supposed, but the problem remained that Zeus had thought of this plan, and the hatred between the two brothers was so ingrained that Hades had trouble admitting that Zeus had had a good idea. It went against all of his principles, after all.

But yes, it could work. He must admit it, if only for the sake of his own revenge against that... _girl _(she was a girl again because only girls could be so hurtful, women and goddesses should know better, should see better beyond petty appearances and as she could do neither of these things, she was obviously neither a woman or a goddess, but was instead a little girl). He could not abide remembering how insufferably _weak_ he had become, thinking of her. He was a millennia old god of the underworld, the cruellest and most fearsome of all the gods, and yet she had somehow managed to turn him into a snivelling wreck of a man, she had made him human. Many things Hades could forget (although they were never forgiven), but this was one offense which he could not ignore. And not only had she made him hope for a better existence, but she had made him look a fool in front of _Zeus. _And yes, she would regret it, she would well and truly rue the day she ever thought to reject him, and now, when they went through with the plan, she would be his queen for all eternity, and she would not escape so easily ever again.

That was the other thing troubling the king, the escape. Where had that horse come from, and why had it felt the need to help the girl? He couldn't help but think that it looked incredibly familiar, and if he didn't know better, he would be sure that it had been Demeter, his fool brother's wife. But no, she may have married Zeus, but she had also left him, showing that she had at least a modicum of sense, and so was therefore unlikely to risk herself saving a daughter who had never in Hades' knowledge shown anything but contempt for the woman who had raised her. She must know what would happen to her, should she ever be caught; no, it could not have been her, and so the horse remained a mystery.

Mysteries were something which Hades could not abide, which was the reason he had had magical windows placed throughout his palace; from here he could see anything he wanted, anywhere he wanted. And it was to these windows he turned, after he had sufficiently calmed himself down enough to think rationally. However, with no ideas as to where Persephone would choose to hide, this would prove to be long, tiresome work. It would be worth it though, to have the beautiful, spiteful maiden as his queen, grudgingly ruling by his side for all eternity. And perhaps, even now, she would learnt to love him, but instead of having to chance to love his human side as before, she would now only have the chance to love his cruelty and his hate. She would love his passion for torture and pain and death. And if she did not? More fool her, for she would surely wither in his kingdom, and become a mere shadow of who she formerly was.

He threw back his head, and laughed. A deep, rasping laugh, edging on hysteria. Oh, he would find her and have his revenge. He comforted himself with this fact before setting down to tracking his future bride.

* * *

It had been days, weeks since Hades had begun his search, and far from giving up, the lack of progress merely served to strengthen his determination to find her. The weeks had been unkind to his emotions; time spent in front of the windows allowed him to brood on what she had done to him, and this time to think did not in any way serve to lessen the embarrassment he felt from the encounter, and from remembrance of his childish fantasies. Because of this, any hate he had felt towards her on the mountain top (which was not really hate anyway, but more heat-of-the-moment anger) paled in comparison to what he felt now; pure, unadulterated loathing. Never mind that only weeks ago he had thought her the epitome of loveliness, and would have done almost anything to have her as his wife (after days of brooding he finally admitted this to himself, turning the shame he felt at himself into hate directed at her, which was, after all, so much easier to handle).

Hades, it seemed, was as fickle as a god could possibly be; his lack of contact with other people (be it god or human) had obviously rendered him unable to feel emotions properly, his psyche had not been allowed to develop through relationships, and so had stayed in a childish state in which love could turn to hate in the blink of an eye. This was another thing he had realised during his time stationed in front of the windows, and another thing which, rather than blame himself, he had turned into anger at another, the other this time being Zeus, his traitorous brother. Oh, he may be working together with Zeus at this moment in time, but Hades was adamant that this changed nothing between the two of them, and as soon as this was over, and Persephone was his queen, Zeus would yet again become the enemy.

He glanced over the windows once more before deciding that she was nowhere in the realm of the gods. She had obviously fled to the human world then, which was fortunately smaller and less complex, and so should (with any luck) be far easier and quicker to search. With a deep frown set into his face being the only indicator of his discontent, Hades once again settled down to his as yet fruitless search.

And days later, his search was at an end. He had been about to give up on the locations he was searching and change the windows when he caught a glimpse of a wheat- coloured mare in a stable. At first he thought it was nothing until he saw the feathers. _Wings. _This was not just any horse, this was Persephone's saviour, the horse she flew away on. _He had found her. _The thought was almost enough to bring a smile to his face. It didn't, of course, but the thought was still there.

In a second, Hades had risen from his seat, and in two seconds he was out of the door, exploiting the powers of a god to get to the entrance of the cave by the third second. Once there, he paused for a split second, the amount of time it took for him to decide not to involve Zeus in this; true, it had been Zeus' plan, but Hades had been the one to find Persephone, and it would be Hades who claimed his prize, not Zeus. The fact that he was betraying his brother's trust was an extra bonus, although not, he told himself, a main part of his reasoning. Hades, after all, would never be so petty. Wrapping the layers of tattered rags in which he dressed tightly around himself, Hades faded out of reality, sinking into the shadows around him.

* * *

In the middle of a forest in the human realm, a clump of shadows seemed to enlarge, linking together and deepening in colour. After a few minutes, they began to solidify and take form. Hades stepped forward, still clutching his rags around him defensively, and glanced around, taking stock of his surroundings.

Truth be told, this pause to check where he had arrived was more of a cover, hiding the fact that by travelling the way he had, he had used up a large amount of his energy (god or not, everyone has limits), and he needed to rest a few minutes before setting off. Of course, he would not admit this to himself (there was little truth he actually _did _admit to himself these days, it seemed), as he was far too proud. How would it be if Hades could not even travel to earth without becoming tired? Perhaps he was getting old. Dismissing his traitorous thoughts, Hades composed himself before sneaking forwards out of the dense woods, towards the run down stables in which he had seen the mare.

He reached the door with no problems, and, peering through a gap in the wooden planks, saw his quarry. She was sat on a short wooden bench, staring blankly forwards. The mare at her side was obviously trying to get her attention, pushing her snout against the girl's head, but Persephone was unmoving. She continued her glazed stare at the wall opposite. His curiosity made Hades wait before capturing her, what had upset her so?

And later, he was glad he had waited, as what happened next solved a mystery which had been troubling him. The form of the mare shifted and blurred, its shape changing until, when it had become clear once again, it was not a mare he saw, but a woman. And not just any woman, he thought to himself, but a goddess. The goddess continued to try and get some reaction out of the absent Persephone to no avail, whilst Hades mind was whirling.

Oh, he had gravely underestimated Demeter, or perhaps he had just not been able to comprehend the extent of a mother's love for her only daughter. Either way, he had made a mistake, and had just been presented with the proof that his first suspicion as to the saviour mare's identity had in fact been correct. Zeus would not be pleased with this, Hades thought, heart warming at the thought, not only had his wife and daughter both run from him, but now they were in fact working together to evade him. And yet still Hades did not ensnare the both of them, still far too curious as to what on earth had caused his future queen to look so distressed.

Wait, why did he care? Why was he wanting to know what had upset her, when he should instead be revelling in the fact that she had been hurt in some way, that some little portion of the pain she had caused him had been transferred into her own body? She was doing it again! Ensnaring him with her beauty and her charm, trying to make him look a fool, trying to make him let her go. Snarling, he kicked open the door and stormed inside. He gave the two women a split second to react, to realise who their captor was, before dragging an enchanted net from underneath his rags. But something strange was happening. The fear and shock that he had anticipated was absent, in its place stood a regretful acceptance, as though they had been expecting him to arrive. And then Hades had the second shock in less than a minute; Demeter placed a soft kiss on her daughter's forehead before transforming once more into the wheat- coloured winged horse. It galloped towards Hades, brushing him out of the way before taking off just outside the doorway and escaping into the sky.

Gathering himself quickly, Hades whirled around, determined to capture at least one goddess today, as well as acting out some well-deserved revenge. He was not to do this however, when he got the third shock in as many minutes (and let me tell you, Hades did not shock easily). Behind him, Persephone sat quite still, although she had rearranged her facial features into an expression of happiness, rather than the blank depression of before. Slowly, she stood and walked (no, he thought, forgetting for a minute that this was the girl he was supposed to hate with all his heart, glided was a more accurate description of her movements) towards him and, upon reaching the god, proceeded to stand up on tiptoes and press her lips gently to his, before taking a step back and smiling up at him.

At this moment in time, all thoughts of hate and revenge left Hades' mind, replaced by an odd feeling of hope and happiness. He crossed the short distance between the two and bent down, looking into her eyes for some form of deception. Blinded by love, he found none, and upon this discovery, he tucked the net back into his rags, gently took her hand, and began the process of melting into the shadows, this time taking with him the _woman _of his dreams.

A/N: Another speedy update :) I hope you are enjoying the story so far, and thank you to those who reviewed :)


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

When Persephone had first seen the mare in her father's palace, she had felt only a blissful relief that she had been handed such an easy way out. This feeling had lasted all the way until they had landed in the middle of a forest on the human realm, of all places. Once there, the bliss gave way to a sort of paranoid confusion, and she became immediately wary of her saviour. Who was this horse? It was obviously magical in some way, because of the wings, but even magical beings could not travel at will from the mountain of the gods to the human realm. The only ones who could do that were the gods and goddesses, and she had never heard of one being able to transform into an animal before.

Perhaps if Persephone had been better acquainted with her mother when she had the chance, instead of merely writing her off as a deluded and jealous woman, she may have been able to recognise pieces of Demeter in the mare. The look in her eyes, the colour of her hair, even, although she would have had to pay very close attention to see this, the way the surrounding forest seemed to lighten a shade or two when the mare landed, and how the sun shone slightly brighter. However, she had dismissed the idea of having a mother as soon as she could, and did not realise who her saviour was.

She thought of running, but she didn't know the human world. She had been there only a handful of times, each time accompanied by her father, and she had no idea how to stay hidden for a long period of time. In fact, she had no idea how to hide for a short period of time. As she had been busy musing over these ideas, and attempting to stop herself from panicking, the mare in question had begun to move away, heading towards the edge of the forest, where the trees thinned and the wildlife was less. It took Persephone all of ten seconds to decide that, as she could not survive by herself, she would prefer to be in the company of a mystery (and possibly dangerous) horse than be by herself. With this in mind, she took off at a jog, quickly catching up to the mare.

After a few minutes, the pair reached the very edge of the forest, and found themselves at the top of a hill on the outskirts of a tiny village. Immediately before them was a small stable; it looked abandoned, which, Persephone supposed, suited their needs very well. Perhaps the horse knew what it was doing after all. Now that she knew where they were headed, Persephone took the lead, skipping towards the stable as though she had not a care in the world. She walked through the door and immediately wrinkled her nose at the smell, but seeing as she had no other choice, she continued in and took a seat on a small wooden bench which stood against one wall, waiting for the mare to follow her in. She only had a few minutes to wait, and she settled down as well as she could in the meantime.

She (not unlike Hades, a little while later) was in for a shock, however, when the horse finally walked slowly into the stable. This in itself was not, of course, shocking, but it was what came next which nearly caused Persephone to faint. What came next was, as you may have guessed, the transformation from horse to goddess.

Persephone swallowed a scream. In front of her, a woman stood, waiting for a reaction. She was tall and elegant, not beautiful perhaps, but she had a kind of aristocratic look about her, causing her otherwise plain features to become striking. A simple white robe hung about her shoulders, the white enhancing a natural light which seemed to be emitting from her very being. Like the horse's coat, Demeter's hair fell in thick, curly golden locks to her waist, her blue eyes (so much like her daughter's own) waiting worriedly to see Persephone's response. When she didn't get one for several minutes, however, the worry turned into a slight frown which settled itself between her brows.

"Persephone? Daughter, dearest, speak, say something," Demeter begged, moving slowly towards her daughter, trying not to startle her. "Please? Let me know you are alright," she continued, when her first enquiry had gained no answer.

Persephone seemed to snap out of her reverie slightly, and her eyes refocused on the figure of her mother.

"You... you were my saviour. Why? It is not as though Zeus will take you back if you hand me in to him, you know? But no, you are not dim, you would not expect that to work... so what is the plan here, mother? I confess I am unable to see what advantage you gain by saving me, and so I am most confused."

"Advantage? Plan? You believe that my saving you was all a part of some bigger plot, some ploy to get back into Zeus good graces? Daughter, you disappoint me!" Demeter was becoming more hysterical with every sentence, decades of Persephone's disregard finally catching up to her, "how could you think so little of me?"

"Can you blame me?" Persephone shot back, "all my life all you have ever done is be jealous of me, you hate that Zeus thinks more for me than he does of you, admit it!" Persephone's paranoia had been building up for so long, she couldn't even try to stop the words coming out of her mouth, although somewhere at the back of her mind, in the part of her brain which was still capable of reason, she knew that they weren't true, and that she should be grateful for being saved. Instead, she was repaying her mother with spite.

"Daughter... how can you think these things? I have only ever wanted what was best for you! I admit I may occasionally have tried to keep you away from your father, but that is simply because long ago, I saw a side of him that I believe you saw tonight, and I wished to shield you from his manipulations for as long as I possibly could!"

"So... all this time... you have been helping me? And you really saved me, tonight, really?" The reasonable side of Persephone's brain was getting control back now, and she began to calm down.

"Yes, of course, daughter, but I am afraid that in a minute you will yet again begin to hate me," Demeter told her sadly. "We don't have long, I fear, and so I must hurry to tell you before he gets here."

"Who gets here? We're not safe here? I thought you saved me?" Persephone panicked, her fragile trust in her mother crumbling yet again.

"Shhh, child, you will know soon enough. Now, what I am about to tell you will not be easy to say, and will doubtless be even harder for you to hear, but I want you to simply listen first, questions can come afterwards, if there is time, alright?" Demeter was beginning to panic now, time was running out, and they had already wasted too much time arguing. Persephone did not reply, and so Demeter forged ahead with her story.

"I am afraid that there is no way to stop you from being married to Hades. It was written in the stars years ago, although, it seemed, nobody but myself paid it any heed," Persephone moved, as if to interrupt, but Demeter quickly cut her off, "and so you must marry him, but I have found a way for you to escape the marriage once it has taken place. Once you are married, you shall be taken down to the underworld, there, supposedly to live with him, to love him and take care of him. However, once down there, you _must not _eat anything, alright? You must not eat anything until I come for you, this is essential, ok?"

"But how are you to come and get me? You cannot even step foot on the mountain of the gods in human form, and so what good can you possibly do me?" Persephone did not like this plan (and not least because she had to rely on her mother to yet again save her), and was, at this point, seriously considering fleeing, and taking her chances by herself.

"I am going to send a message to Zeus. I will offer him an exchange, one which I am certain he will not be able to resist. He is the only one who has the power to release you from the marriage, and when he does, I will come to get you before going to him," Demeter sensed Hades nearby and quickly transformed into her horse form, hoping to keep that particular gift a secret for a little while longer.

"An exchange? Wait, you shall go to him? Mother what..." You could almost hear the click as everything fell into place in Persephone's mind, and her eyes lost their focus, staring blankly at the wall opposite her whilst she contemplated what her mother would be sacrificing for her safety. She did not deserve it, she realised.

A minute passed, and Persephone still stared, seemingly oblivious to the many nudges the mare was giving her with her snout. Although she could sense that Hades was very close by, Demeter was desperate, and her daughter had to give her some kind of sign to show that she had understood everything Demeter had said before the goddess dared leave her daughter. And so she betrayed her own secret, transforming back to her human form right in front of the watchful eyes of her husband's brother. Panicking now, Demeter continued her attempts to break her daughter out of her reverie, to no avail. And then, as Hades finally stopped spying and stormed into the stable, the tiniest of nods. If Demeter had blinked, she would have missed it, but it was all the confirmation she needed, and in seconds, she had transformed yet again and was galloping towards Hades, taking great pleasure in the shock etched across the cruel god's face. And then she was out of the door, into the air, and away from capture. She had escaped, but now she must do her utmost to ensure her daughter was able to do the same.

In the stable still, Persephone forced herself to wear an expression of happiness, as though she wished nothing more than to be in a small, run down stable with a cruel, ugly man who was to force her to be his queen. She knew that to guarantee her safety whilst in the underworld, she would have to woo Hades, to make him fall under her spell. And so she did the only thing she could think of in such dire circumstances and crossed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his. She held back a cringe as she stepped away, disguising her disgust as shyness. He was easier than she had expected, she thought, as he looked into her eyes and seemed to think he had found the truth in them. She took the offered hand and was whisked away by him, her future husband.

_Please mother, _she thought desperately, _come for me soon._


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Demeter watched from the skies as her daughter took her place next to Hades in the clearing. Persephone's fair hair had been braided and piled on top of her head; her usual blue robe had been switched for a sheer one of white, trimmed in gold, with a white cloak draped around her shoulders. She looked beautiful, as always, as she stood next to her soon-to-be husband and in front of her traitorous father.

Zeus, Demeter observed, did not look troubled in the slightest at the thought of the union he was about to perform, in fact, a wide smile adorned his face as he played the part of loving father. The part may have been a fake, but the smile was genuine enough. After all, he was achieving everything he wanted with this marriage; revenge on not only his daughter for disobeying him, but on his wife for leaving him, and on his brother, who did not, Zeus supposed, realise what kind of woman Persephone actually was. But, he would find out soon enough, and would deeply regret ever accepting Zeus' offer. He had been surprised that Hades had been so easily taken in by a beautiful girl; he had thought Hades had possessed more sense than that. But even the king of the gods can be proven wrong occasionally.

A tear fell from Demeter's eye as she looked down on the small gathering as her daughter accepted Hades as her husband, seconds later, Hades accepting her back. He swept his mouth down to claim hers as they were pronounced married, and, if one were watching very closely, one would have seen Persephone tense up for a moment, before forcing herself to relax into the kiss from her new husband.

Unfortunately, Zeus was one of those who was watching closely, and found that he could not suppress a chuckle at the obvious discomfort he had deliberately caused his daughter. This would teach her not to disobey him, and who knows, perhaps in a few years he would take her from Hades. She would look to him as her rescuer, and perhaps if he had not found a new wife by then, he would take her as his own. She was, after all, incredibly beautiful, and once she had learnt her place would no doubt make a fine wife.

But that would be in years to come, and right now all he could do was laugh as Hades led his daughter away through the cave into the underworld. His plan had worked perfectly, and, as an extra bonus, it had provided some well- needed entertainment for the king. Who would have thought his idiotic brother would have come in useful one day?

* * *

Later that evening, Zeus was lounging, yet again, in his throne, being fed various fruits by his attendants, and allowing himself to reflect on the events of the day. A few chuckles had escaped his lips, which had drawn strange looks from the others in the room, but they had quickly shrugged it off as high spirits because of the marriage. Truth be told, they were all rather unsure as to what exactly the king had been thinking when he had given his daughter's hand in marriage to the much- hated king of the underworld. But, he was their beloved king, and so the accepted it, trusting that he had his reasons for his decision.

Just as yet another chuckle was creeping from Zeus' mouth, a wheat-coloured mare stepped up to the entrance of the room. Slowly, it began to walk in a straight line through the masses in attendance towards the king, the sound of hooves echoing, causing an eerie effect as everyone's conversation drew to an abrupt halt. They stared at her curiously as she continued on her path, but she carried on, oblivious to their gawking.

After what seemed an age, she stopped in front of the throne, and Zeus finally noticed her presence. Up until know, he had been too busy reliving the ceremony to be paying any attention to what was happening in the room with him. He leapt to his feet, instantly recognising her not only as the mare who allowed Persephone to escape from him, but as his estranged wife, Demeter.

"YOU!" he bellowed, finger pointing straight at her in accusation, other hand gripping a newly conjured thunderbolt. "You dare to return! So casually, as thought there is no danger for you here! I shall just have to show you how wrong you are," this last part was sneered nastily at her, a malicious smirk playing on his lips, as he recovered from the shock and realised that she was doomed. He prepared to throw the thunderbolt at her before she had even the slightest chance at escape, when she did something which even Zeus himself could not do.

Before their eyes, the form of a horse began to blur, the edges seemed to shift and change, until, and by the time the figure could be seen in perfect clarity once more, it was that of a stately woman, not a winged horse. To say Zeus was shocked would be a gross understatement, as although he had (since recognising her all of 2 minutes ago) assumed that she was able to change form, he could not have guessed that she could do so with such ease. At this point he began to feel slightly uneasy. If she had this power which he did not, then how was he to know that she did not have others that she had kept hidden from him? The paranoia (which, incidentally, he had passed on to his daughter) which had gained him the throne in the first place began to kick in. Had she come to steal his crown?

"Zeus, dear husband, how _lovely _to see you again," the icy tones she used to address him with had never before been heard issuing from her mouth. She had become upset occasionally, yes, she had even very rarely become angry, but never had she sounded so hateful. And it was then that he noticed that she had changed; the light which was usually naturally issuing from her being was dimmed, and instead a strange aura, tinted grey, seemed to throb around her angrily.

"Demeter," he acknowledged, wary now, and beginning to regret his previous outburst slightly, "why are you here?"

"Why, to offer you a choice, of course. You can either release Persephone from this ridiculous marriage, or you can not. There are other conditions as well, but I would rather like to hear what you have to say on the matter first," the unfamiliarly cold tones continued, and his unease deepened. What was she playing at?

"Our daughter has been married, my dear, I should have thought that was a happy occasion. Are you not pleased that your daughter has made such an advantageous choice of husband?"

"I thought so. In which case, I shall begin with the threat, and move on to the payment later," at this, Zeus ears pricked up, payment? What exactly would she be able to pay him off with? But she carried on, oblivious to his excitement, "If you do not release Persephone from her duties as wife, all of your precious humans you love so much will die."

The people of the court caused uproar at this; they did not know what they had been expecting, but this certainly was not it. Such blunt, cold-blooded words from the goddess of growth! Zeus frowned slightly, the only acknowledgment he gave of the possibility of millions of deaths.

"And how exactly, pray tell, were you planning on committing this atrocity? You are trapped here now, and even you cannot kill millions from afar," Zeus was not certain on this last point, after her display of power earlier, but he thought it better to try and call her bluff than allow her to trick him with false threats.

"How easily you forget, dear husband, what a mother's wrath can achieve. In fact, already the murder is beginning. The people grow cold, their crops are dying, their water frozen and useless. It will be a slow death for all of them if you do not abide by my wishes," Demeter stated dispassionately. Murder was not in her nature, she was a cultivator of life, and yet desperate times called for murderous measures. These were very desperate times.

Zeus was mystified. She had beaten him. He could not let his people die, the other gods would revolt. He would be dead within days. But He could not show her that she had won so easily. He had not forgotten her earlier promise of payment.

"And if I agree? If I release _dear _Persephone from her unfortunate marriage? What was this payment you spoke of before?"

"If you agree, you get me. I will come back as your wife, yours to have and control until you see fit to be rid of me. That is my offer," Demeter was confident that he would accept, and yet she could not stop the worry swirling in the pit of her stomach. What if he did not? Would she have to kill the humans? Or would she die too quickly to have a chance? Perhaps the latter option would be best, as despite her anger, she did not feel that she would be able to commit mass murder. But she could not back out now, she must think of her daughter, and so, she used her now eerily cruel voice to demand, "What is your answer, Zeus?"

Zeus thought quickly, if he agreed, he would be surrendering his pride, and he was not sure that his stubborn streak could take that. However, he could not deny the advantages of agreeing, and rather thought that they greatly outweighed the negatives. As his was still mulling this over, his mouth decided to choose for him.

"Yes," he spoke softly, thoughtful still, "I agree to your terms, Persephone will be released from her marriage. However, I am sure you realise that I cannot promise that she will be allowed out of the underworld, as that is Hades' land, and so is subject to his laws, not mine." Perhaps the brat will still get her punishment, he thought.

"Thank you, my love," Demeter's whole disposition changed in less than a second. One minute she was radiating hate and anger, a frown graced her face, and her tone was icy at best. The next, she was calm, confident and simpering, her voice was soft and intimate, as though she had forgotten that she and her husband were in front of a crowd of her fellow gods and goddesses. He had agreed to what she wanted, and so she was fulfilling her end of the bargain. She would not, however, stop her punishment of the humans yet, not until she had her daughter in her arms again.

Now, she could do nothing but wait and hope that Persephone had taken her warning seriously, for if she had not, all of Demeter's efforts would have been in vain.

* * *

A/N: I should warn you that none of this is beta'd, and I haven't really read through it, so if you see any mistakes, feel free to point them out to me :)


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Not five minutes after arriving in the underworld, Persephone was shown to a chamber, and left alone. It was only then that the full extent of what she had done hit her, and she sank to the floor in despair. A strangled sob escaped her, seeming to break down the floodgates, as after this sob came another, and another and another. For a while, it seemed to her that she would never be able to stop crying, that she would be lost to her unhappiness for as long as she lived. Persephone was a teenager, and teenagers, even the ones who are goddesses, all have melodramatic tendencies every now and then. The problem was that, being a rather spoiled girl, the goddess's tantrum was rather longer than most, and it was a few hours later when she finally pulled herself out of it and cleaned herself up. Crying did nothing for her beauty, and even if it was only for Hades, she had to look her best.

She was just in time too, as Hades chose a few minutes later to enter the room. His thin black hair floated lazily about his shoulders, matching perfectly the colour of the long robe and cloak he had dressed in for the ceremony. He had an odd expression on his face, almost nervous, as he drew her attention to some white garments hanging over his arm.

"I brought you your outfit; I hope that you find it to your liking. I suggest you change into it immediately," he spoke briskly, masking his fear that she would dislike the clothes he had chosen for her.

"Of course, my lord," she simpered, looking up at him through her eyelashes as she took the robe and cloak from his arm. He stood, waiting, and after a few seconds, she realised that he had no plans on leaving the room to allow her to change. Disgust flashed through her briefly, before she forced a small smile before turning her back on him and dropping her everyday blue robe off of her shoulders, allowing it to pool around her feet on the floor. She slowly stepped out of it, and slipped the replacement robe over her head in its place. She had barely glanced at what he had given her until now, and so only now did she realise that it was made of a sheer white fabric, trimmed around the neck with gold. One part of her mind (the part which had been raised by Demeter) screamed at the indignity of it, but the another part, her ego, no doubt, told her that she was not ashamed of her body and should therefore not complain about being given the opportunity to show it off. She hesitated, unsure, until she saw the second garment, an opaque white robe. She breathed a sigh of relief and picked it off the floor and, draping it over her arm, she turned to Hades.

"Is there anyone who can do my hair? I am afraid I am unaccustomed to doing it myself, and I am sure that you wish me to look my best," in reality, she was just dying to be in the company of somebody but the god, as his presence, and his intense scrutiny of her, made her feel more uneasy that she ever thought possible.

"Come here, my love," in answer to her question, Hades moved towards her, pulled a stool from behind him forward and sat her on it, back to him. He began to fun his spindly fingers through her long locks, teasing out the tangles and separating the curls. Persephone had to fight a flinch every time his fingertips brushed her neck, shoulders or back, and it was all she could do to stop herself from jumping from the stool and fleeing from this place.

"You have always had such beautiful hair," he murmured, leaning down so that he could speak into her ear, his breath causing goose bumps to rise along her neck, "I don't know how I managed to keep myself away from you for so long, my love." It was safe to say that Persephone had begun to lose track of what he was saying, as every word seemed to bring new questions into her mind; 'always had such beautiful hair'? And yet to her knowledge, she had never seen him previous to a few days ago. He kept himself away from her? Why did he want to be near her? She had thought that he was marrying her for Zeus, and because of her looks, of course, but if so, then why was he speaking like this? What was happening?

She had stiffened as he said this, and he seemed to notice, a look of shame and disappointment fleeting across his face, before he schooled it into a blank mask. Quickly now, he pulled her hair quickly into a braid, nimbly wrapping it around her head, and pinning it in place; she ignored the pain as he pulled her hair about, stabbing the pin in a lot harder than was strictly necessary. A feeling of relief stole over her as he pulled his hands away, and she was allowed to stand up and face him. The feeling quickly disappeared however, when he grinned at her manically and held out his hand for hers.

Quickly pulling the white cloak around her shoulders, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her up, and out of the caves and chambers of the underworld palace.

* * *

Persephone would never remember much of the ceremony, the only moment which was clear in her recollection was a feeling of betrayal caused by her father as he laughed when Hades kissed her. She still could not quite believe that this was the man who had raised her, whom she had trusted over her mother, who she had loved. He had betrayed her terribly, and yet she was unsure whether she wanted revenge or forgiveness. Forgiveness for what, she did not know, all she knew was that she had a terrible need to please him, to make him love her again, to put things back the way they should be, the way they had been. And yet the realistic side of her knew that this was extremely unlikely to happen, and that she must accept this fact.

This hazy recollection of events carried on until early morning when she awoke in bed, surrounded by black hangings. Without turning over, she could feel his presence in the bed behind her, although after a few painstakingly slow minutes of holding her breath, she was certain he was asleep, and so was, at this moment in time, no threat to her. Slowly, quietly, she gathered a bed sheet around herself, pushed the hangings aside and climbed silently out of the bed. The stone floor was cold on her feet, but she ignored the discomfort in her efforts to put as much space between herself and her... _husband _as possible. She quickly took stock of her surroundings, searching for something that may be of use to her.

Persephone instantly saw that she was not in the same chamber as she had been led to last night; this one was much grander, perhaps Hades' own room. The enormous four poster bed she had just escaped from dominated the area with its layers of hangings completely hiding the figure of Hades which she knew resided inside it. On the opposite wall was a window, large enough for a window seat to be set into it, yet small enough that no light could enter. She was confused for a second, wondering how she could see the sky through the window, when she had assumed that they were underground.

However, when she moved closer, she recognised that this was not the sky she knew, nor the sky of the human world. This was the sky of the underworld, and it showed. Millions of shades of black and grey danced together to create a mass of darkness which seemed almost alive, and every so often, a streak of red or orange would race through the dancing colours, as though fire was falling to earth. There was no moon, no stars, no light of any kind, save the flashes of red. The land beneath it was no better, indeed, in comparison to the land, the sky had the beauty of a summer's day. It was not so much land as bodies, she realised as she looked closer. Hundreds, thousands, millions of bodies, all covered in blood, dirt, and various other substances, and all piled on top of each other. From this height, she could not tell if they were moving, and so was unsure if they were alive or dead, but after a moment she decided that she did not want to know either way. But then she found out, as she noticed one body was more lively than the others; she could see it, even from this distance, awkwardly trying to crawl over the sea of humans under it, desperately trying to find some escape from this hell. Persephone almost recoiled in horror at the sight, she had never seen such a thing before, she had never known that such ugliness existed. It scared her to her very bones, more so than marrying Hades had, more so than defying her father had. She could not stay here to wake up to this view every morning, she could not stay sane if she did!

Turning, she located the door, but when she crossed the room and tried the handle, she found it was locked. Shoulders sagging in defeat, she gathered her bed sheet tightly around herself, and looked for somewhere to sit and wait for dawn to arrive. To her horror, she saw that she only had two choices, unless she wished to stand where she was for hours; she could return to bed, to her sleeping husband, or she could take a seat at the window seat, with its view of the night sky. Picking the lesser of two evils, she hesitantly pulled back the bed's hangings and, dropping her sheet to the floor, climbed back in next to Hades. Rolling over so that her back was to him, she drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them with her arms, and prepared to wait for morning.

* * *

Morning came far too slow for Persephone's liking. In the hours she had lain in bed, curled up in a foetal position, memories from the previous night began trying to poke their way into her conscious mind, and try as hard as she could, she found it impossible to suppress them all. The layers of black hangings were so thick that she did not actually notice when dawn arrived, and only realised that it was time to start her day when Hades rolled over, and, thinking that she was still asleep, murmured into her ear;

"Wake up, my love," before kissing a trail down her neck, causing her to shudder slightly. Without turning and looking at her new husband, she pushed herself out of bed, yet again ignoring the cold on her feet. It was strange really, she mused, it was almost as if the cold on her feet was the only thing she could feel, like the rest of her had become numb. Her melodramatic tantrum from the day before seemed almost enjoyable compared to the feelings filling her now, or the lack of.

She walked over to a mirror, set over a small dressing table, obviously put in the room in preparation for her arrival. Hades watched her as she stood, staring at herself, not even minding that she was standing naked in front of the man she hated. Her hair, golden and shining only the day before, had become greasy and tangled, hanging in messy curtains over her shoulders. She stood awkwardly, with none of her usual grace, and her skin looked pasty in the dim chamber room. This paleness caused the bruises littering her skin to stand out shockingly; a flash of disgust (at herself, at the man in the bed behind her, at her father) showed in her eyes for a second, but all too soon it was gone again, and she was left with nothing; eyes blankly staring at her pathetic form, her mind blocking her from feeling any emotion, be it good or bad. Her beauty was gone, but it did not hurt her, for she was numb.

How long she stood there, Persephone did not know, but after a while, Hades grew worried, and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He placed a single kiss on the crook of her neck, before moving away from her again, only to come back momentarily with a robe for her to wear. Far from her usual pale blue robe (which would not, of course, have helped her in any real way, but it may, for a second, have made her feel herself again), the one he pulled gently over her head was of a dark red, a strip of embroidered material at the top, accenting the red with flashes of gold. It was a robe for a woman of power, which, she supposed, was what she now was. Funny, though, how she felt more helpless than she ever had before. She felt as though everything she had had been stripped from her; her freedom, her innocence, her happiness, her family. It was all gone, and for what? She had a powerful, husband, yes, but she was beginning to wonder if that meant anything to her at all.

She stood stock still as Hades brought a bowl of water to her and began to wash out her hair, again gently threading his fingers through it to pull out any tangles. She could not suppress a flinch this time, however, when his long thing fingers brushed against her lower back.

"Persephone, what is wrong?" he asked, for all the world sounding as though he genuinely cared. This attitude confused her; he had been so angry and spiteful when he had agreed to Zeus's proposal that when she came here, she had expected him to hate her, to use her as revenge against his brother. At first, she had merely assumed that he could not bring himself to hurt someone of her beauty, and yet she had lost her beauty last night, and so he could not be taken in by what she was now, a shell of her past self. So why had he not turned on her yet?

Suddenly realising that she still had not answered him, she turned to him, forcing a smile on her lips.

"Nothing, my dear, a little hungry is all," she spoke softly, as though her voice box did not agree with the words she was saying, and was trying not to let them out. "Shall we have breakfast soon?" she asked, hoping to escape from the intimate setting of the bedroom.

"Of course, my love, I shall finish your hair and we shall go to the dining hall," Hades reassured her, looking relieved that nothing else was wrong. Moving quickly but gently, he pulled her hair into a long braid over her left shoulder. He pulled a long black robe from the back of a chair and pulled it haphazardly over his head before offering his hand to her (which she dutifully took) and leading her from the room.

She was taken down many hallways, turning this way and that, sometimes walking through empty chambers, until they eventually reached a grand hall. Hades was happy to see that she had made no attempt to track where she was going, in order to help with any escape she may have planned. The truth was, the despair had settled in, and she did not even think of escape. The hall had three long tables stretching from one end to the other. At the far end of the middle table, Persephone could see two plates of food laid out, complete with goblets and a large fruit basket between the two. As they moved towards them, Hades began to make small talk with her.

"I don't know how you usually spend your days, and so I was unsure whether to make arrangements for anything to help you settle in here, perhaps you have an idea as to what you wish to do with your days? Read, maybe?" Hades suggested, desperately hoping that she would not become bored here and wish to go back to the mountain. He did not know if he could go back to the solitude after having a taste of what companionship, what love was like.

"Reading sounds fine," she murmured vaguely, "I have not had a chance to do much of it before, always busy with other things, so it will be a nice change." In reality, she had latched onto it as an activity in which he could not participate, and so hopefully, she would have the chance to spend as much time as possible away from her husband.

"Excellent, I shall have someone show you to the library after we eat," at this, they reached their places; Hades pulled out her chair for her, and she sat, with her back straight and her hands folded politely in her lap, as she had been taught by her father.

Before Hades sat, a slight being with deep blue skin signalled to him. Hades moved over to the being, where the two held a short whispered conversation which Persephone watched impassively. After a few minutes, the creature was dismissed and Hades returned to take his seat at the head of the table.

"I have just been informed," he started, plucking a grape from the basket and eating it before continuing, "that your mother has returned to Zeus, and that he has willingly taken her back."

The word mother caused Persephone to freeze, food halfway to her mouth. Her mother, her warning, how in the world could she have been so foolish as to almost forget? Slowly lowering the food back to her plate, she debated her best course of action.

"He did not punish her at all?" she questioned, mostly to buy herself time, but also partly out of worry for her mother. She had forgotten that she was not the only one in a dire situation.

"Apparently he did not. There was some sort of argument, in which, I have been informed, she threatened the mass murder of the humans if he did not accept her back as his wife," of course, Hades' spy had decided that it would not be prudent to inform his master that there was an exchange, and that Persephone would be taken away from him very soon. Hades had a reputation of blaming the messenger, and the blue-black being had a very strong survival instinct warning him against telling his master the whole truth.

"I see. Most strange, I would not have believed Demeter had the power to kill one human, let alone all of them," she replied scornfully, pushing her food around her plate with her fork.

"I also was surprised at the news, although I found out at the stables that I had already greatly underestimated your mother, and so I should not be too shocked that she has proved me wrong again," Hades mused aloud, before delicately placing another strip of ham into his mouth. _I suppose his manners are decent enough, and so maybe he has some good in him after all_, Persephone thought, almost giggling at the strange idea that his manners made up for his many other faults. Deciding that she had pushed her food around enough for one day, she lowered her fork gently to the side of her plate and dabbed at her mouth with a cloth napkin.

"My dear, you have hardly eaten a thing," Hades exclaimed, seeing her give up on her food, "are you sure that you want no more?"

"That won't be necessary," she answered firmly, "You would not want me to become overweight now, would you?" she asked coyly, a small half smile lingering on her lips as she looked at him through lowered lashes. He gazed at her intently for a second, as though trying to determine whether she was telling the truth or not, before allowing himself to chuckle at her.

"You are right, I would not wish that, you are far too beautiful to ruin," he answered (although he was secretly thinking that she would be beautiful even if she were fat, at least to him). "Come now, let me show you to the library myself, before I must leave to my duties."

Persephone inwardly cringed at the thought of what these duties entailed (she had not forgotten the image of the sea of bodies outside the window), before rising from her seat and taking his proffered arm.

Yet again, she allowed herself to be led away by him.

* * *

A/N: Yay for really long chapters :)


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The library was, like most chambers she had seen so far, large and overly grand. It was gloomy, and smelt strange, a mix between damp and book mould. But it was fast becoming a haven for Persephone, as her time as Hades' wife turned from days to weeks. The books distracted her from the gnawing hunger which ate away at her, and the room itself allowed her refuge from not only her husband, but from the various other beings and demons who resided in the palace.

Time alone was precious these days, even more so than when she first arrived. Her refusal to eat (although Hades thought that it was merely a lack of appetite) was causing her once curvaceous figure to waste away. For the first week or so it wasn't too noticeable, and Hades accepted her excuses as to why she kept fainting (a slight illness, dear, nothing to worry about), but time was passing, and with each day it seemed she became smaller and smaller, her bones sticking out at harsh angles, and her eyes sinking down, into her skull. If, before all this had happened, she had been told that she would become uglier than anything she had ever seen before, she would have laughed and declared the idea ridiculous. And yet now, she had merely accepted it. After all, she mused, what good was beauty when there is no-one worthy of seeing it?

In the first few days, she had waited and longed for her mother to come and save her as she had promised, she was unable to even entertain the idea that another of her parents had betrayed her so badly. But, as the days turned to weeks, she had been unable to get the idea out of her mind, and now that it had been almost a month of waiting, she had lost all hope of a saviour. Or at least that was what she told herself, ignoring the voice in the back of her mind which asked why she hadn't started eating again.

It was in the library that Hades found her that day. Watching from afar for a few minutes, he took in the image of his bride. Her back was to him, the upright back of her favourite chair (green and tattered, it was as far away from any windows as possible) hiding most of her figure from view, although the burning torch she read by illuminated her face, causing the shadowed hollows of her cheek and eyes to be starkly obvious. Her hair hung in damp locks about her face, the bright sheen completely gone now, chased away by weeks without sunlight or food. The same damage had been inflicted on her skin, once golden and glowing, it was now sallow and greasy. Her blue eyes no longer shone with mirth, instead they stared blankly at the page before her, a silent desperation flickering in their depths.

Hades could not understand. He had brought her here to make her happy, and yet his every effort was rebuked. She loved him, he was sure of that; the tenderness in her voice as she spoke to him, and her smile when she looked at him assured him of that. And so it could not be that she did not want to be here, to be with him. It couldn't be that she was merely bored, he had already asked her, and had been answered with a firm no, and that she enjoyed her time in the library. He had spent the weeks racking his brain for anything, any small, seemingly insignificant thing, any little detail which could be troubling her so. He had come up with nothing substantial, but his worry increased with every passing day, until he got to the point at which he was desperate; desperate for answers as to why his beloved was wasting away in front of him. He was not used to caring so very much about someone, and even less used to feeling so helpless.

Snapping himself out of his daze, he walked over to her, calling her name softly as he approached. Persephone jumped slightly at the sound, and raised her head minutely, a tiny smile on her lips in greeting, but otherwise did not react to his presence. Frowning, Hades knelt at her feet, gently pulling the book from her grasp without glancing at the cover, and picked up her tiny hands in his.

"My dear," he murmured, looking into her desolate eyes, "I beg of you, tell me what is ailing you so, give me some hint, some clue, as to what I can do to help you." Persephone's eyes focused on him for a second, (a huge achievement in itself, as it seemed too often these days that she looked through him, or around him, but never at him) and she seemed thoughtful.

"Bring me Demeter," she finally whispered, so quietly that, had he not been a god, he would never have heard it, "bring me my mother," she added, her tongue fumbling slightly over the word mother, as though it was foreign to her.

"She will not come, love, not to here, not to the underworld," Hades told her gently, regretfully, but not wishing to raise her hopes only to have them dashed.

"I see," Persephone breathed, eyes once again losing focus, staring vaguely at a spot on the wall two feet above her husband's head. Hades swore inwardly, how could he be so cruel? He should have promised her, that he would get her mother there no matter if she refused; he should have told her that he would do anything for her. If he was a good husband, a husband who deserved her, he would have done these things, he told himself.

"There may be a way you can see her though, my love," Hades hurried to add, "You can meet her at the entrance of the underworld, in the clearing where we were married. I shall send her a message asking her to meet you there this evening, how does that sound, Persephone dearest?" Briefly, in the back of his mind, he wondered how she had managed to change him so entirely in so short a time. He was gushing, _gushing. _He didn't do that. Usually, he snapped, yelled or whispered threateningly. But he did _not _gush. The thought was gone as soon as it came though, smothered under a tide of concern for his wife. He had no time to be thinking of himself.

A real smile graced Persephone's face, causing her hollowed features to show a shadow of the beauty she held before her marriage, and she lifted her hand to cup his cheek.

"That sounds perfect, my dearest husband, however may I thank you?" Her voice was genuine, and Hades was taken back that she should think he wanted thanks for his actions.

"Just knowing that I am doing something to help you be happy again is thanks enough for me," He murmured against her hand, before kissing it lightly. "Will you be joining me for dinner tonight?" he asked, though he already knew that she wouldn't. Perhaps her mother would be able to persuade her to eat.

"Maybe later, my love, I would like to finish reading tonight before bed," she answered predictably, smiling up at him innocently. Hades sighed, before smiling indulgently at her and taking his leave, Persephone already settling back to reading before he had left the room.

_At least she is smiling now, _he thought to himself as he left, _maybe she'll be better now, and we can be happy._

_

* * *

_A/N: Sorry that it's a bit short, but I hope you enjoy anyway :) And thanks for all the lovely reviews, I will get round to answering those I haven't already answered sometime soon.


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Demeter stood waiting by the entrance of the cave, guiltily glancing around every few minutes, almost dreading seeing her daughter again. Not only had she failed her terribly, but she had become a murderer. What would Persephone think of her now?

Of course, Demeter had not left Persephone at Hades' mercy by choice, rather she had been tricked. Foolishly, she had forgotten how manipulative her husband could be; tears of shame sprung to her eyes as she replayed the day she realised his trickery, a week after Persephone was married.

"_My love," Demeter simpered, swaying her hips as she approached Zeus, "I believe it is about time you completed your side of the deal, don't you?" The smile adorning her red lips was seductive yet feral, she was not in the mood for hiding her power away tonight, and if her husband made the wrong choice here, he would soon see his mistake. _

"_Do you?" Zeus answered vaguely, absentmindedly tossing a thunderbolt from one hand to the other as he lay back in their bed, "and what in the world makes you think that?"_

_Demeter bristled; where had the fear he had exhibited in the palace gone? Why had he returned to his usual arrogance when he knew what she was willing to do to his precious humans, what she _was _doing to them? Her determination growing, she moved away from the bed side to the chair over which her nightgown hung. Dropping her robe to the floor, she turned back to her husband._

"_Oh nothing, I suppose, only that several hundred of your humans are close to dying already, and it would be a shame to kill more than was necessary," she answered casually, hoping to annoy him with her uncaring attitude towards becoming a murderer. She was unsuccessful, however, his only response being a glance towards her, eyes taking in her naked form and a smirk playing upon his lips before he looked away again, back to his thunderbolt. _

_Frustrated at his lack of answer, and slightly worried that she would have to become a murderer for her daughter, the goddess frowned, finally slipping her nightgown over her head. Whilst killing sounded easy in theory, Demeter, despite being a goddess and it being well within the reaches of her power to kill every human alive, did not believe that murder was in her soul. She had not done it before, in all the years she had lived, and though she loved her daughter, she could not deny that the girl was not worth hundreds of deaths. She was cruel and selfish, utterly obsessed with her own beauty and worth; it is terrible for any mother to see that they have raised their child badly, and for the goddess it was no different. The girl had listened only to the compliments of the nymphs, and the praise from her father, ignoring any attempt Demeter made to mould the girl into a responsible, caring goddess. Demeter had promised now, however, and could not go back on her word, no matter how little of herself she saw in her daughter. _

"_Do you plan to let them die then?" She questioned snappily, abandoning the simpering voice, seeing that it was not fooling the god. "Will you let them suffer longer? They have no food, no water; the earth is too hard to work, the rivers too frozen to fish, illness is already flying over the earth, choosing its victims! Will you wait until I have killed hundreds or thousands? Or will just one be sufficient? How many deaths will be enough to prove to you that I am serious in my threats?" She was breathing hard, angry now, becoming desperate as her plan began to fall through her fingers. Her quickened heartbeat filled her ears as her blood pounded haphazardly through her veins, and so she did not hear at first when Zeus began to chuckle. When his chuckle became a loud laugh however, she could not ignore it any longer, and was forced to hear its happy peals. _

"_And what, may I ask, dear husband, is so _very _amusing?" Her voice was shaking slightly, the angry pulsing aura once again beginning to ebb from her being. _

"_Oh, my lovely Demeter," he laughed, "you are," his tone suddenly turned icy and his eyes snapped around to meet hers. She barely had a second to comprehend the transformation before he was upon her. Pushing her backwards against the wall, the thunderbolt he had previously been throwing around lazily was at her throat. He lowered his head until their noses were almost touching, icy blue eyes locking deep green as he began to speak. _

"_You seem to be under the impression that you have some form of control over me. You may have powers that I don't know of, but I have powers that you have never dreamed of. Even if this were not true, I think you shall remember that, as my wife, I now have full control over you, a control you only too willingly submitted to, and because of this, if I so wished, I could have you relinquish your powers, and release this plague of cold you have submitted my humans to. I could have you crawling on your knees, powerless and broken, begging me for mercy. And it would be your fault, because you gave yourself to me, to with as I will. The day will eventually come when I grow bored of you and decide to exercise some of my control over you, dear wife, but let me tell you that if you insist on carrying on with these ridiculous tantrums that that day will come far sooner. Do you understand?" Each of these last three words was accompanied by a blow from the thunderbolt to the side of her neck, so that when he had finished speaking and backed away, she fell to the floor, neck burning and bleeding, unable to breath from the destruction of her windpipe. _

"_Well," Zeus asked icily, "do you understand?" He waited until the pitiful heap of goddess on the floor managed to give a desperate, painful nod before waving his hand lazily over her form and turning his back on her to return to bed. _

_On the floor, Demeter found herself able to breathe again, although she was still unable to form words, and her neck was still wounded. Using the wall, she managed to stand, warily watching her husband, as though waiting for him to attack her again. He didn't, however, only glancing over to her when she had stood up, his face adopting the same smirk he had worn before the confrontation._

"_I don't believe you'll be needing that night gown tonight, my wife," he leered at her, and Demeter choked back a sob. She wished in that moment that she had the power to destroy the man in front of her, that she could rip him limb from limb, and send his soul to Hades, to be tortured for all eternity. But she had no such power, and could do nothing but dutifully slip out of her robe and climb into bed next to her husband, silent tears streaming down her face all the while, mingling with the blood from her neck._

At the cave entrance, Demeter shook her head, clearing it of such thoughts. Absently, she touched her fingers to her neck; the wound Zeus had created had healed by the next morning, and yet she swore that once in a while she could still feel her blood pouring down her neck, taking any hope she had with it.

Snapping herself out of her brooding, the goddess suddenly realised that her daughter was late, and a stab of worry went through her. Her glances turned from guilty to suspicious, as she peered at her surroundings, anxious to see any trap or ambush before it was too late. So intent on this was she that when Persephone did stagger from the cave not five minutes later, it wasn't until her daughter was at her side that she noticed her.

Because Demeter had jumped back in fright at what seemed to her to be a very sudden appearance, it was another minute until she managed to fully realise the state her daughter was in. The weeks in the underworld had not been kind to her, and Demeter could not quite believe that this stooped, pale little slip of a girl was her daughter. But then their eyes met, and she knew; blue eyes stared back at her, and although they didn't hold either the arrogance or the amusement that they used to, they were still essentially Persephone: beautiful, against all odds.

"You have betrayed me, mother," her broken daughter whispered, "I wish for an explanation."

At this, Demeter wanted nothing more than to break down, to stop forcing herself to be strong and to let herself cry (something she had not allowed herself since the night of Zeus' violence). But she couldn't, and she knew it. She owed her daughter her explanation; it was all she could give her now, after all.

* * *

It took the entire evening, and a good part of the night, for Demeter to explain fully what had happened to Persephone. And even then, Persephone was left confused, unsure what to think anymore. Should she blame her mother for abandoning her, for telling her tales of destinies written in the stars and then betraying her? Or her father for orchestrating the entire mess? Should she blame Hades? Or herself? Questions swam round and round her head, faster and faster, only stopping when Hades unexpectedly stepped from the cave and sent Demeter away. Fear shocked all of her questions from her mind, only to replace them seconds later with new ones, like: has he been there the whole time? Does he know that I wanted to escape? Will he kill me? Were him and Demeter partners the whole time, is this a set up? And many others, each becoming more paranoid than the previous as the seconds ticked by, and the goddesses stared at Hades in shock.

"You have been here too long, my love, it is late and you must return to me, please say goodbye to your mother so we may leave," Hades' voice was not unkind, although neither was it pleasant. It was as if he was unsure whether he should act lovingly as he usually did around Persephone, or if he should be hateful and cruel as he was around all of the other gods and goddesses. Instead of choosing, he had chosen a neutral voice which did nothing but confuse the two women, and further excite their paranoia of being overheard.

"Of course, my king," Persephone bowed her head respectfully to him for a second before turning to her mother. Embracing her for the first time in years, Persephone whispered in her ear, "find a way." She then let go of her only hope for freedom, and took the arm of her jailor instead. Without looking back, she followed Hades back down to the underworld, there to resume her now familiar life of despair and depression.

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A/N: As always, if there are any mistakes, please let me know :) I hope people are still enjoying the story :)


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Demeter stood alone in the room she shared with Zeus, staring into a hand held mirror. A frown was settled deep into her face, resolving itself not to leave until a plan had been thought of. The only problem being that the more Demeter attempted to force herself to think, the blanker her mind became.

Zeus was away, visiting the human realm for a time, no doubt to find some whores, she thought, and with equal lack of doubt, to impregnate them, all the better to embarrass his poor wife. Not that it mattered, she mused, let him have his fun. She would merely use the time alone to plot, to devise another strategy. Surely the old plan would still work, if she could just think of the key to making Zeus cooperate. Alas, it was this key which was determinedly eluding her, however much she tried to reach it.

Her determination to save her daughter had been renewed after meeting with her; not only had she found that Persephone's physical appearance had changed shockingly, but the young goddess also seemed to have matured greatly in the weeks since Demeter had spoken to her last. The old Persephone would have thrown fits, sulking when she found that throwing tantrums didn't help. This new woman she was becoming was far more rational, thinking the situation through rationally, gathering all the information she could. Perhaps Demeter had passed on some of her genes to the girl after all.

Sighing angrily, she slammed the mirror face down onto a table; she whipped around, pacing viciously from one side of the room to the other, abandoning her usual stately posture in the heat of the moment. It was there, and she knew it, floating in the recesses of her mind was the answer; a conversation she had forgotten, a word only half-listened to, perhaps it was dreamt, or spoken to her whilst she was sleeping. It was there, in her mind, the key to her plans, if only she could remember it.

"Eurgh, this is infuriating," she muttered to herself, pausing in her pacing to lean her head against a wall. She just needed to calm down, she thought, getting angry was achieving nothing at all. Leaving her head resting against the wall, she closed her eyes and took several large, deep breaths. Once her hate rate had lowered sufficiently, she stepped away from the wall, and cast her eyes around the room for something that could be of use. Seeing nothing immediately, she instead fixed her eyes on a throne like chair in one corner. She snorted slightly at Zeus' arrogance before walking over and sitting herself in the chair, legs crossed underneath her, and eyes resolutely shut tight. Settled and calm, she began to cast her mind back, in search of the elusive key to winning Zeus' cooperation.

Hours later, she roused herself, stomach begging for food. If you hadn't known where to look, you would never have noticed the difference this Demeter had from the despairing Demeter of before. But if you did, it was obvious; the lack of tension in her neck, the reclaiming of her upright, aristocratic walk. The goddess had found the key, and in due time, she would use it, but before that, she had a dinner gathering with her husband's peers to attend. One must keep up appearances, after all.

* * *

As Demeter was eating a lavish dinner with various gods and goddesses, her daughter was poking her fork at a meagre plateful of food, her only company being the god of the underworld. And whilst they did not usually talk an awful lot, he seemed determined this evening to make conversation with her.

"What did you and your mother talk about last night?" had been the bases of many of his questions, along with many like: "I hope Demeter is well?" To attempt to reassure her that he was not simply prying, but was instead genuinely interested in Persephone and her mother's relationship. He was not the most subtle man, she mused, lifting a forkful of fruit to eye level in order to better inspect it. But she had dutifully answered him, although the questions had become so repetitive that she was almost automatically replying now. And so it was that she almost slipped up when he asked a question she was not expecting.

"What is it you read all day long in the library, my love?" Hades asked casually, acting for all the world as if he did not care much for the answer. Perhaps Persephone was wrong, and he was just a little bit subtle after all, with a healthy dose of cunning to go with it.

"A little of this and that," she answered vaguely, her attention focused on deciding the precise colour of a piece of fruit on her plate, "today I finished a scroll on underworld laws," this last came out before she had even been able to fully comprehend what it was that she was answering. Her hand jumped slightly, guiltily, when she realised what she had admitted, causing her fork to clang loudly against the edge of her plate.

"Underworld laws?" Hades questioned, certain his suspicions had been correct, "now what would you be reading that for?"

Persephone, for all her faults and weaknesses, was an excellent liar. She had spent years lying to her mother, who had always taught her that practise makes perfect. Well, she had certainly had a lot of practise at this, she thought.

"My dear, I am your queen. A queen has certain duties, duties which I have not as of yet been fulfilling, and I wish to serve you as best as I can, it is the least you deserve. I confess that I have no real interest in reading, but I have been learning the laws, the ways of the underworld, so that I may be your queen in every sense of the word, ruling with you, by your side at all times," Persephone felt the joy of victory at her swift recovery for a few seconds before realising exactly what she had said to cover her tracks. To rule with Hades, to inflict pain and cruelty on those poor bodies which made up the landscape outside. She could say without a doubt that she would be unable to stomach it, and at that time he would discover her lies. She had just given herself a deadline which she had to escape by without even realising it. But she could worry about that later, when she had time alone to think. The pressing matter now was whether or not she had managed to convince her husband of her trustworthiness, for if she had failed, then the consequences would undoubtedly be deadly.

Whilst these thoughts had been flying through Persephone's head, Hades had set down his fork and risen to his feet. By the time Persephone had realised that she should be paying more attention to his reaction, he was on his knees before her, having pulled her chair around to face him. Taking both of her hands in his, he looked up into his wife's blue eyes and began to speak.

"Persephone, dearest, I owe you an apology. I had thought that you- I had suspicions that your reading in the library was merely a ruse, a cover for some attempted escape," here he laughed, a strange, strangled chuckle, misunderstanding Persephone's look of shock, "I know, it seems ridiculous now, does it not? That you should try to run from me, but you must understand, everything, everyone, I have ever had has run from me, abandoned me. And so it seemed only natural that you would try the same. I was so afraid of losing you, losing the only one who loves me, the only being who truly accepts me as I am. I am truly sorry for thinking so little of you, my love, I should have known that you would never be so hurtful, and I only hope that you may be able to forgive me," Hades finished his speech with downcast eyes, the very picture of sorrow.

Throughout this, a strange feeling had begun to grow inside Persephone. It began in her throat (as most feelings, both bad and good, tend to), quickly spreading down, encasing her heart and causing her stomach to feel queasy. Unbidden, a tear came to Persephone's eye, and she quickly wiped it away with a bony finger. Gently, not knowing why she was doing it, she took Hades chin in her hand, forcing him to look up at her. Beaded tears clung to his thick black eyelashes, and why had she never realised that he had such beautiful eyes before? The dark mass of guilt in her (although she did not know it was guilt, having never felt such a thing before) twisted and turned, wrenching at her heart as she looked at her husband with new eyes. How had she never noticed how broken he was before?

Slowly, as though afraid she would shatter him, or startle him and he would run, she lowered her lips to his in the softest of kisses. Drawing back, she looked into his eyes, and was so startled by the genuine love that she saw there that she did not think to protest as he led her away from the dining hall to their chamber, and when they reached their chamber, she did not want to resist as he took her to bed.

* * *

Persephone woke very early that morning, something she had not done since her first night here, when the only thought on her mind had been escape. Then, she had stubbornly refused to look at her husband, but now, she turned over, careful not to dislodge the arm that was slung around her waist, and watched as he slept, thinking back to last night. The mass of guilt was still inside her, coiling around her organs, threatening to suffocate her. It had not been lessened by what had happened as they were about to drift asleep last night. Hades had spoken to her. Actually, she was not so sure that the words had been directed at her, it was almost as though he had been speaking to himself, and she was eavesdropping on a very private moment. But still, she had listened, unable to drag her attention away from the constant stream of words uttering from his mouth. His voice had been low, saturated with sorrow and regret, as he spoke of his life. He spoke of wars and lovers, creation and death, his family (here, Zeus played a major part, to Persephone's eternal shame) and her, his wife. He told her of how he would watch her, how he adored her laugh, her happiness. He told her that her beauty, although it undoubtedly played a part, was not the only reason he fell in love with her, but instead it was the life she held within her, the potential she had to be great. And last of all, just before they both gave in their heavy eyes and fell into a deep sleep, he told her of his duties, of how they had changed him, of the horrors some of the humans he dealt with had committed. Persephone thought of the mass of bodies, and no longer felt pity for them, knowing that each and every one deserved so much more for the sins they had committed.

Looking at him now, she could hardly believe he had lived through so much, and still found the courage to keep on living, to keep on trying. Had it been her, she was sure she would have run eons ago, to find solace in hiding or death. And yet, she mused, mere weeks ago, she would not have believed she could survive this, living in the underworld, away from her admirers and her family, completely cut off from the frivolous life she had led. But she had, she had survived, and more, she had become stronger. Oh, her physical body was weaker than ever, she could barely stand without assistance any more, but it was her mind that had matured and grown. Her beauty had been taken from her, which, previous to this marriage, had been her most important possession. How childish that sounded now, to rely so strongly on something so inconsequential.

Reaching a hand out, she ran her fingers along her sleeping husband's jaw. Her mother had failed to save her from this marriage once, and it was very doubtful (at least in Persephone's mind) that she would succeed the second time she tried. Perhaps it would be better for all involved if Persephone just... accepted it. She was married to a strong, powerful god, she was queen, if only of the underworld, and although the marriage had not been of her choosing, the young goddess was beginning to wonder if it could possibly work after all.

Of course, the fact that it would quite possibly break her own heart to hurt Hades, now that she knew all the hurts and betrayals he had endured in the past, was not acknowledged in her thoughts.


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Zeus returned to the mountain of the gods a week later, oblivious to all that had happened in his absence. His visit to the human realm had been truly excellent, he thought to himself as he swaggered into the palace. True to Demeter's suspicions, he had found some very pretty young women to spend his time with, though whether they were pregnant or not, he had not stayed to find out. Were it not for his love of power, Zeus was sure that he would forsake his duties as a god and live permanently down on earth, drinking and whoring and gambling; but he did love his power, and, besides, he had far too much pride to just up and leave without punishing those who had defied him first. Speaking of, where was that wife of his?

Setting off through the palace, he eventually found Demeter in the hall, sat delicately in the throne next to his own, looking for all the world the loving queen, looking down upon the usual mass of friends and admirers.

"Demeter, my _love_," he bellowed, ignoring those from the mass who tried to call out greetings to the king as he passed by them. "I have returned from the human realm, leaving many satisfied women behind me," this last was said quieter, and with a wink, directed towards Eros, who grinned roguishly back at him.

"Welcome back, my King, I trust you had a most profitable trip?" Demeter stood from her throne as she replied, refusing to give him the chance of towering over her.

"Why yes, darling, it was," when he reached her, he swept his arms around her, kissing her roughly, in an obvious display of ownership, though most of those watching mistook it for love. Even gods sometimes choose to see what they want to see, rather than face the truth. "How was your time here, without me?" he asked, straightening up again, flashy her one of the smug grins he seemed to specialise in.

"It was... enlightening," Demeter answered vaguely, extricating herself from his arms, and retaking her seat, indicating with her hand that Zeus should follow her example. "In fact, there was something I wish to talk to you about, when you can spare a minute or two," Demeter had no plans to waste any more time on pleasantries, wanting to be sure that her plan would work.

"I can always spare a minute for you," Zeus spoke absently, his attention taken by the pretty girl serving him grapes, "no time better than the present, what is it?" he wrenched his eyes away from the girl and onto his wife.

"When you were courting me, I don't suppose you remember promising me something, in a bid to get me to marry you?"

"No, I don't recall," Zeus frowned slightly, unable to see where his wife was heading with this line of thought.

"A shame, I suppose I shall have to explain to you in just a minute. However, before I do that, I would just like to let you know that I am officially accepting your offer," Demeter's smirk was spread wide across her face, looking for all the world like a cat who had just caught a mouse. Zeus was worried now, anything that could make the woman this happy could not be good for him.

"I dare say you'll get round to telling me exactly what you are prattling on about eventually, will you?" he answered casually, unwilling to let on that she had rattled him.

"Oh, it's nothing that should bother you, really. It's just that you offered me the honour of being protector of marriages, of course at the time I declined your offer, but you were generous enough to tell me that the offer was there, if I ever wanted it. I have decided to accept, and so I must thank you deeply."

Zeus desperately searched his memories, finding, to his despair, that yes, he had offered her the position, and that yes, she was correct that he had left the offer standing, should she ever wish to change her mind. Resigning himself to losing the battle, he sighed.

"Fine, you win. Release the wench from my brother, although you'll still have to abide by his laws if she is to leave. To be frank, the entire thing bores me, and I would much rather spend my time punishing you for your disobedience," he finished this with a nasty smirk and a wink, before turning to the serving girl, whispering something in her ear, and then getting up and leading her from the room. As she was leaving, the girl shot a guilty glance back at Demeter, before her attention was stolen back by Zeus.

Back in her seat, Demeter was too pleased by the victory to be anything more than slightly embarrassed by her husband's display with the serving girl, and she left immediately, intent on letting her daughter know the news straight away. Reaching her chamber, she fetched the small bird she used for delivering messages, and sat at the table, hurriedly scribbling a note. Shoving the folded note into the bird's claws, she threw the thing from the window.

The goddess watched as the bird plummeted for a few seconds, before it got over the shock of being so suddenly thrust into the open air and, extending its wings, it flew swiftly away, straight towards the cave entrance to the underworld.

Demeter stared at the empty sky for several more minutes, trance like, not quite believing that her plan had gone so well, that Zeus had given up so easily. All she had to worry about now, was whether or not Persephone had continued to heed her warning not to eat any of the food. From her appearance last time they met, Demeter felt that it was safe to say that she had followed the rule up until then at least, the only way this plan could fail was if something had changed in the last week.

She shook her head, what could have changed? She was wasting time, standing and staring, when she should be preparing to travel, to meet her daughter as she exited the underworld for the last time. Hurrying now, she found a long, green travelling cloak and threw it around her shoulders, pulling her hair from the knot on top of her head, choosing instead to braid it down her back. She tugged the hood of the cloak over her head, obscuring her face and hurried from the chamber. Staying quiet, and walking close to the walls, she made it out of the palace without meeting anyone; it would be better if Zeus did not know of her departure, for although he had allowed her to win, she was sure that he would not let her see her daughter again, if he had the chance.

And so, hidden, she left the confines of the palace, travelling by foot and hoof for many hours through forests and meadows to reach the empty clearing. Settling herself down among the trees, she waited, her gaze fixed upon the cave entrance, watching for the return of her daughter.


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

A few days after Persephone's revelation concerning her situation, she was more convinced than ever that she would not altogether mind staying in a marriage to Hades. Every night, he had spoken to her (or to himself), whispering his secrets into the night, baring his soul to her. He had trust in her as no-one else ever had, and she had to confess that she was incredibly flattered by it. Even when her beauty was gone, this man still loved her. She was beginning to question every word that had been whispered to her (whether by the nymphs, by her father, or by handsome men) throughout her childhood; she knew now that there was more to life than what she had been taught, and was disgusted by how shallow she had been.

It was strange to feel this way about something that had come so naturally to her not over a month earlier, but she supposed it was merely a by product of the combination of terrifying situations, and hours upon hours of time alone to think for herself, without anybody else's input. All her life, she realised, she had been told how to think, how to feel, what to value, and who to like. Well, no more. She was a woman now, she was a queen, and she would make her own decisions, based on her own opinions. She would not let her father (or her mother, or anyone else, for that matter) dictate her life for her anymore.

And so it was, that one morning as they were eating breakfast (or, at least, Hades was eating breakfast whilst Persephone engaged in one of her usual staring contests with her food), that the young goddess decided to make her choice. At first, Hades thought nothing of it as his wife speared a pomegranate seed on a prong of her fork and raised it to eye level. She did this often, all the better to examine the food that she would never eat, after all. But he was in for a shock (it seemed to Hades sometimes that in the time he had known her, he had been shocked more times than in the rest of his life combined), as she slowly lowered the fork to her mouth, gently pulling the seed off with her teeth. Daintily, she chewed the morsel, before swallowing ever so slightly.

Pleased with herself, she put down her fork and turned to her husband, only to find him staring at her as though he had never seen her before.

"My dear, what is wrong?" she asked, with genuine worry. At her words, Hades seemed to snap out of his trance, and an uncharacteristically wide smile spread across his face.

"Nothing, my love, nothing at all," he murmured happily, going back to his breakfast, although the grin never left his face for the entirety of the meal. Persephone just smiled to herself, happy with his reaction, as she went back to playing with her food. She ate nothing more for the rest of the meal, after all, she had not eaten in weeks, and her stomach was not used to food. She had no wish to worry her husband by making herself ill.

After this fateful breakfast, life for the day returned to normal, with Persephone spending it reading in the library and Hades busy attending to his duties, though he could not stop his thoughts straying back to his young wife's actions that morning. Persephone, for her part, read with renewed interest, her lie to Hades of wanting to fulfil her duties as queen of the underworld had suddenly become the truth, and she was eager to devour any information she could find in order to help make his life easier.

* * *

This ritual at breakfast carried on over the passing days, with Persephone consuming just one seed each time, until eventually she began to have a seed at dinner as well. And so it was that by the time her mother's message came (delivered by a tiny, harried looking, black bird) that the young goddess had eaten a total of six pomegranate seeds, rendering her unable to escape, no matter what her mother had sacrificed to allow her freedom.

At this particular moment, Persephone was pacing in the library, note clutched tightly in her hand, and a furious expression on her face.

"How dare she!" she growled, pausing in her pacing to read through the crumpled note once more.

_Daughter,_ it read, _I have called in an old offer from Zeus, I have been appointed the protector of marriage, and so I have declared your marriage annulled. I am sorry for the hurried letter, but I don't wish to make you remain in that place, with that man, any longer than you must. Leave as soon as you get this letter, if you are able, I shall be waiting in the clearing, your mother. _

How dare she proclaim her marriage annulled, Persephone thought angrily, without even bothering to consult with me first? She would not be forced to leave this place; she would not go back to the father who had betrayed her! And no idiotic notion such as annulment would make her. She had eaten the seeds though, the food of the underworld, by law no-one could make her leave. But they were only six seeds, would that be considered enough to allow her to stay? Perhaps if her marriage had been intact, then it would be, but with it destroyed heartlessly by her own mother, Persephone was unsure if Hades would have enough power to keep her by his side.

In her rage and terror, she forgot that her mother had thought that she was acting in her daughter's best interests; the young goddess forgot that this would have been brilliant news, had it come but a week earlier.

"I must tell Hades, he will know what to do," she whispered softly to herself, needing the safety of the man's presence more than she had ever realised possible. Mind made up, and feeling far calmer than she had, now that she had something to be doing, Persephone strode to the door, slamming it open, and rushed down the hallways in search of her husband.

* * *

Hades was finishing up with a human when she found him; what was left of the soul was crawling through a hole in the wall, the hole that Persephone knew led to outside. Obviously the human had done evil things when it was alive, and she sneered down at it as she passed by, having no pity for such a despicable creature.

As she was sneering, Hades noticed her presence with surprise.

"Persephone, my love, why are you here?" he asked, not realising that he was effectively ruining his reputation as the cruel and sadistic god of the underworld with just a few words.

"Oh, Hades!" Persephone cried, rushing into his arms which, thankfully, closed around her instantly, enveloping her in a feeling of safety and security. Not trusting herself to explain to him all that had happened without flying into a rage, she thrust the creased letter from her mother into his hand before burying her head back into his chest.

Brows furrowed, Hades looked at the letter, confusion at what could possibly have caused his wife to become so distraught clear on his face. This confusion soon cleared up, however, as his eyes skimmed through the contents of the note, replaced with undeniable fury at the presumption of his young wife's mother. His early suspicions had been directed at the wrong person, he realised, it was not Persephone who wished to escape, but her mother who wished to steal her away. Wrenching his attention away from thoughts of revenge, Hades focused instead on the young woman in his arms, her tears soaking the front of his robe.

"Do not worry, my darling," he murmured, for her ears only, "I will do everything in my power to stop that damned woman from taking you away from me." At Hades' words, Persephone visibly calmed, her shoulders stopped shaking and the river of tears flowing from her eyes began to dry up. "You've eaten food here, no matter if we are married or not, you must stay here. That is the law of the underworld, and your cursed parents will not dare to go against it. You are safe, my love, you cannot be taken, except by force. And I cannot think of anybody stupid enough to attempt to kidnap the queen of the underworld."

"But I am not queen anymore, am I, my beloved? I am not anything to you any longer," Persephone knew that she should not care; she knew that she should be glad to be freed from this forced marriage. But so much had happened since she arrived in her new home, so much within her had changed, and, inexplicably she had fallen for Hades. To have her title taken away from her, the one thing which identified her position by Hades' side, was breaking her heart.

"You may not be my wife any longer, but you are still my love, and after I have dealt with Demeter, you shall be my wife once again," Hades said, softly rubbing his thumb over her cheek to clean it of tears. Glancing around, he realised that all of his servants who had previously been watching them had left at some point during their conversation. The damned human had crawled to its doom and they were alone in the silence of the room.

"Come now, Persephone love, let us have some dinner before we retire for the night," putting an arm around her waist, Hades gently pushed her from the room, intent on getting some more food into her before they had to face Demeter.

* * *

A/N: As always, thank you to all the lovely reviewers, who I will get around to answering sometime or another, I promise :)

Also, as usual, I haven't really checked through any of this since writing it, so if you see any mistakes or anything, please let me know.

I've actually finished writing this story now, so it should all be up within the next few weeks. I'm now starting on a bit of Harry Potter fan fiction, but I was wondering if people want another Greek mythology story? And if so, any favourite myths? I think I'll do one anyway, but if anyone has a myth that they _really _want done, I might choose to do it :)

Anyway, sorry for the long author's note, and I'm hoping you enjoy the story!


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

The sun had long since set, and the moon was hidden behind thick black clouds, meaning that the goddess in the long, green cloak was standing in utter darkness as she waited for someone to appear. She ignored the chirps of the insects, and the scuffling noises of the larger animals as they hurried on with their lives, oblivious to the drama going on around them. Although the forests around her were full to the brim with creatures, the clearing her eyes were fixed on was suspiciously empty.

And yet still she waited, until the forests around her had begun to go silent once more, the night- time creatures running off to their nests to sleep the day away. The sun had not yet begun to light the mountain, though a pre-dawn glow was covering the forests. It was at this time, just before the break of day, that a shadow slunk from the cave, stopping in the centre of the clearing, and staring with dark, malevolent eyes at the goddess hidden within in the trees. The goddess did not move, and nor did the shadow, both too stubborn to lose the battle of wills by looking away first. It was childish, and both knew it, but they stared regardless, until a bird shrieked from the tree under which the goddess stood, shocking her into losing. A slow smirk began to form on the shadow's face, the upper hand was now his.

"Where is my daughter?" called the goddess, voice wavering slightly. When she received no answer but a widening of the smirk on the shadow's face, she stepped forward to meet him, out of the cover of the trees and into the empty clearing. Staring at him, she waited, but still she gained no answer, nor indeed a response of any kind.

"Why will you not answer me? You have no hold over her anymore, or did you not hear? She is not your wife now, she belongs to me, to take back home, where she belongs. Hand her over!" The goddess was becoming desperate now, made uneasy by the silence of the shadow, and it showed in her voice. She spoke quickly, gesturing wildly with her hands, but all the while the shadow was silent and still. After a few minutes of demanding, the goddess stopped speaking, worry and confusion clear on her face. She stepped back, pulling up the hood of her cloak, which had been dislodged during her plea for her daughter. For a few minutes, all was silence again, as the two figures stood their ground, but eventually, the shadow spoke.

"Persephone is not your belonging. You do not own her, and you have no claim to her anymore," the shadow's tone was icy, though the words were relatively innocent, he managed to make them seem a threat, promising great harm should the goddess continue on this line of questioning.

"I have more claim than you, Hades!" the goddess did not seem able to stay calm, and once again flew into a rage, demanding alternatively that he give her Persephone, and that he tell her where she was. All throughout, the shadow stayed silent, the smirk now long gone from his face, to be replaced with a look of such hatred that the goddess had trouble resisting the natural urge to recoil from it. Or, at least, she would have done had she not been too busy yelling desperately at him to notice. Perhaps if she had, she would have realised how dangerous it was to continue and stopped. Alas, she did not have this sense, only knowing exactly how angry she was making the shadow when he suddenly stepped forward and, grabbing her around the neck with one spindly fingered hand, pushed her roughly back into the nearest tree.

The goddess gasped for breath, her tiny, delicate hands scrabbling furiously at the back of the shadows, but to no avail. Though she had the inhuman strength of a goddess, the shadow had that of a king, and she was no match for him. Knowing that he had her trapped, at his mercy, made the shadow's smirk return, though the hateful glare still lingered in his eyes.

"She is not yours. She is mine. To answer one of your questions, right now, she is asleep, in my bed. Safe, from the likes of you. To answer your other question, no," the shadow's face was mere centimetres from the goddesses, so that with every word he spoke (though the sound emitting from his mouth was more akin to a snarl than to human speech) speckles of spit flicked onto her face, furthering her humiliation and defeat. In truth, the calm manner in which Hades spoke worried her more than the fact that she could not breathe, and was rapidly approaching unconsciousness. He was too confident, too sure that she could not take her daughter away from him. What had he done to her Persephone? How had he thwarted her plan already? She had failed her daughter once more.

This was her last thought before she succumbed to the darkness and fell limp in the shadow's fingers, just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon.

* * *

When Persephone awoke that morning, she instantly felt the cold caused by the lack of Hades at her side. Rolling over, she took in the rumpled covers, worry spiking through her, almost painful so early in the morning. Leaping agilely from the bed, she quickly rid herself of her night gown, pulling a sea- green robe over her head to replace it, covering her bony figure. Running a brush quickly through her hair, she piled it on top of her head, held up by a gold clasp. Satisfied that she was decent, she ran to the door, wrenching it open and began her search for her beloved.

Almost half an hour later, (although it had seemed far longer to Persephone, worried as she was) her fears were assuaged as she, literally, ran into Hades. Having fallen to the floor, she let out a sigh of relief as she looked up and saw her husband (although he was not, Persephone still loved to call him it, in the hope that one day soon he would be again) standing over her, reaching a hand out to pull her up, his expression one of concern.

"Oh, my love! Where have you been? I awoke and you were not there, and that has never happened before, and I was so worried!" Persephone gushed out, grabbing the king into a tight hug, reassuring herself of his existence in front of her. Chuckling slightly, Hades wrapped his arms around her, forgetting his earlier anger at her mother in favour of overwhelming love for the young goddess in front of him.

"I simply had to run an errand, my dear, though I am very sorry for having worried you, I promise that this was not my intention," Hades told her, speaking into her hair, planting a small kiss on top of her head when he had finished.

"Do you promise not to do it again? I was so afraid that Demeter had somehow stolen you from me, though I don't know why she would have done such a thing," Persephone laughed slightly, realising how ridiculous her thoughts had been; why in the world would her mother steal Hades from his bed, when Persephone herself was lying right next to him? She shook her head slightly, astounded at her irrationality.

"I promise, my love, you have no fear. And as for that woman, she will never steal either of us from the other, I shall make sure of it. Now come, let us eat breakfast, and I shall tell you about my errand," Hades had debated whether or not to inform his young love of his meeting with her mother, but eventually had decided that if he expected her to take him as her husband again, he was far better to stick to the truth, at least where she was concerned.

"Of course, and it had better have been a good errand, to worry me so," Persephone teased, as they headed to the dining hall, his arm still firmly wrapped around her shoulders.

"It was, my dear, I think you shall be very pleased," he smirked back, sure that, while she may not appreciate him knocking her mother out, that she would at least be glad that Demeter would, with any luck, not be making any attempts at taking Persephone from her home anytime soon.

When they reached the hall, they took their usual seats, he holding her chair out for her before she sat, as he always did, and she thanking him sweetly, as she always did. When Persephone had eaten a single pomegranate seed (also, as always), Hades began to tell her of his meeting with Demeter.

"My errand this morning, my dear, was less of an errand, and more of a meeting. Your meeting, in fact, with your mother, the one she requested in her letter, as soon as you were able to 'escape'," a smile tugged at Hades lips at the thought of his beloved wishing to escape. It was utterly ridiculous. "I hope you don't me taking the liberty, but I sent her away rather forcefully."

"You met with my mother? Why did you not allow me to come with you? I am sure that I would have been rather more forceful with her than you must have been," Persephone whined petulantly, for a second reverting to her former less mature self.

"Now, my love, you know that it was far too dangerous for you to come with me, we cannot give that woman even a seconds' chance at stealing you away, because I have no doubt that she will take it. And I am not about to put you in danger when there is no need for it. Be assured that I was able to get the message across more than adequately by myself," it seemed that Persephone's whining had struck a nerve with Hades as he snapped back at her, voice slightly colder than it usually was when directed at his young love. Persephone bowed her head, properly chastised.

"I am sorry, Hades, I know that you did what you had to, and I am very grateful for it. I am just frustrated, is all, annoyed that she thought she had the power to take me from you," her big, pretty blue eyes filled with tears, though rather than openly blubbing as her old self would have done, she kept her head bowed, allowing the tears to run silently down her face, unseen, and unnoticed.

"My Persephone," Hades sighed, running one hand through his hair, pulling it back from his face, "I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm sorry. I am scared, is all, scared that she will win and I will lose you!" this last was spoken quickly, as though he had forced himself to say it, and was trying to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. Persephone looked up, surreptitiously wiping the tear tracks from her face with one hand, while the other went out to cover Hades' where it lay on the table.

"I am scared too, my love," she told him, with a shaky smile adorning her sunken features, "but we are together, and they cannot beat us as long as we love one another." Abruptly, Hades stood and, muttering his excuses and giving her a quick kiss atop her head, he left the room in a hurry.

But not before Persephone had caught a glimpse of the tears spilling from his eyes and dripping down his cheeks.

* * *

A/N: Yay for updating quickly!


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

By the time Demeter managed to regain consciousness, the sun was high in the sky, illuminating the clearing she still lay in and chasing away any lingering shadows. Birds and animals were chattering happily in the forest behind her, and it seemed an entirely different setting to the one she had passed out in. She looked around blearily as she tried to make sense of what had happened before she had blacked out. Hades was there, she was sure of that much, but where was Persephone? And how did Hades know of the plan in the first place?

She tried to stand as she thought, but her legs were shaky still from the lack of oxygen, so even the simple task of standing was rather difficult. After a few minutes, however, she managed to regain her footing, using a nearby tree to lever herself up. As she was doing this, the memories of her meeting with the underworld god began to slowly slip back into her mind, until she was pushed back to the forest floor under the sheer weight of despair which struck her as she realised that Persephone, her only daughter, was lost to her. Hades had won, and he knew it. Who knew what kind of hardships her only daughter was going through in that wretched underworld? Yet again, she had broken a promise to the younger woman, and Demeter doubted that she would be forgiven for this one.

"All of my efforts, for nothing," she murmured into the ground where her head lay, her voice so soft that she herself could barely hear it. A breeze blew through the clearing, ruffling her hair and blowing her cloak away from her body. And yet still she just lay there, face buried in the dirt of the ground, eyes wide and unseeing, limbs limp. After what felt like seconds to her, but was in actual fact at least an hour, judging by the movement of the shadows, she blinked. This slight movement disrupted the spell that had been put over her, and she suddenly found that she could move again. The shock had left her, replaced by a heart breaking feeling of guilt and loneliness. Shivering, she slowly crawled to her feet, gathering the deep green cloak around her once again, and pulled the hood up, hiding her face from the world. Determinedly ignoring the pain in the heart for the time being, Demeter moved slowly off into the forest, feet skilfully traversing the bumpy forest floor. Faster and faster, she began to walk, until she was jogging. When she broke into a full on run, her form began to shift and change, until instead of a distressed goddess with a green cloak trailing behind her, there ran a wheat- coloured horse, hooves beating a deep pattern into the ground. She ran as she had run from Zeus, though this time she ran from her failure.

* * *

Zeus leant back, happy in the comfort of his enormous bed, and sunk into a luxurious pile of cushions. He stretched his toned arms up behind his head and grinned roguishly at the ceiling. Now that he had washed his hands of that blasted Persephone business, he had time for the good things in life again. Two of said good things were currently sleeping, their heads on either side of Zeus' sculpted stomach. Both had long, dark hair, and when awake, their sparkling green eyes were captivating. Twins really were remarkable, Zeus thought contentedly. Letting out a happy sigh, he sat up, ruthlessly letting the girl's heads fall off of his stomach and hit the mattress, instantly waking the both of them up. Ignoring their complaints, he stood, idly conjuring a thunderbolt and twirling it between his fingers. Walking across the room, he grabbed a drink of water from a basin, the girls still complaining in the background, beginning to irritate him with their begging.

"Zeus, honey, come back to bed," they mewled, lounging in the middle of his bed. Grinning to himself, he turned so fast it appeared to the girls in his bed that he hadn't moved at all; as though they had blinked and he had simply been in another position when they opened their eyes again. They looked at him in shock, unease clear on their faces. He leered back at them, looking for all the world like a vicious predator about to go in for the kill.

"If either of you dare speak a word again in my presence, I'm afraid I shan't be held responsible for my actions," he informed them jovially. Unease turned to confusion in their expressions, and they stared at their lover until one of them plucked up the courage to speak.

"Zeus, what do you-" the girl never had the chance to finish her sentence however, because as soon as she had opened her mouth, he had hurled the thunderbolt in his hand at the bed, exploding it from underneath them. Any screams they had been about to let loose were cut off when they flew backwards, propelled by the force of the exploding bed, and hit into the wall behind them, knocking the both of them out almost instantly.

Idly wandering over to see the damage he had caused, Zeus noted that blood was trickling from one of the girls' temple, dripping down onto her naked chest. The other one seemed relatively unharmed, a few scratches here and there, but nothing life threatening. Chuckling to himself, he nudged the nearest girl's head with a toe, enjoying the way it limply fell onto her shoulder.

Oh yes, he thought to himself as he strolled away from the wreckage, life was just fine today.

But that was a lie, and in actual fact, life was only fine because the god was ignoring the niggling feeling he had in the back of his mind. He didn't know what the feeling was, or what it pertained to, but he knew it was important, and that he wouldn't like it if he examined it further. Hence, the plan to pretend the feeling wasn't there at all, and to instead concentrate on the better things in life. Like girls, and explosions, and exploiting his powerful position as king to do whatever he wished, with absolutely no repercussions.

Tying a long, white cloth around his waist, Zeus left the room and, after sending the first servant he ran into to go and clean up the mess he had left, he headed towards the main hall, in search of some form of entertainment.

When he got there, however, he did not find any entertainment, but instead found his wife, standing before the assembled gods and goddesses, seemingly in the middle of giving a speech.

* * *

Demeter ran for hours, eventually ending up in the forests surrounding her husband's palace. Unwilling to set foot in _his _domain just yet, she transformed back to human form and hid for a while behind an old, gnarled tree. The similarities between her station now and her wait at the edge of the clearing the previous day went unnoticed by her, lost in her thoughts as she was. Her mind was racing; her desperate run had caused the despair- fuelled blockage in her mind to disperse, allowing her to see what she had not been able to in her grief- stricken state. She realised now that there were still ways to save Persephone, if she only had enough daring and courage, that is.

Going through the many possibilities in her head, she finally latched onto one which, although she would indeed need a lot of bravery to go through with it, and a lot of luck for it to succeed, would have little risk on her part. Many of the other plans she had considered involved going down to the underworld herself, to steal her daughter back, but she knew how unlikely it was that she would come out of there alive, and she could not save Persephone if she was dead, after all.

But this idea, yes, it had potential to be great, so long as her timing was just perfect. Zeus would need to be out of the way, of course, and she would need to make sure that most of the more powerful gods and goddesses were in the main hall in the palace at the time. Yes, there were details that she would need to see to, but overall, it was the most likely to work, though it did rely on the sympathies of the other gods. But she was sure that her plea would not go unnoticed, and that many would join her side, desperate to help her release the young goddess. After all, many of the other gods were Persephone's relatives, and whilst Zeus clearly did not know the meaning of family, a great number of the others surely did.

Yes, she thought, it would work. It had to; it was possibly her last chance to get her daughter back where she belonged, and she would not fail again. Mind made up, Demeter left the safety of the forest and headed purposefully toward the palace. She slipped inside, her hooded cloak covering her face as she hurried down the corridors of light, bypassing any who called out for her attention. She was inside the main hall within minutes. Quickly, she took stock of her surroundings, these first few seconds being vital to make sure her plan would work.

She was in luck; many members of the upper levels of the gods were present, lounging together on masses of cushions and chairs, eating fruit from the trays the servants were passing around. One of her criteria fulfilled, she glanced towards the thrones which stood on a dais at the head of the large, grand room. Both were empty. Relief filled Demeter's mind as she realised that her plan could be set into action right now, but she quenched it within seconds, knowing that Zeus could return at any time.

Throwing the hood of her cloak from her head, she strode purposefully down the centre of the room, reaching the dais the thrones stood on in less than thirty seconds. By holding her head high, and allowing her cloak to billow behind her as she walked, these thirty seconds were all she needed to capture the interest of all those present. Once up on the platform, she stood in front of Zeus throne and turned to speak to the assembled crowd, all of whom were staring at her with curiosity.

For a minute, she did nothing but stare at them all, making sure that she made eye contact with each of them at least once, knowing that she was heightening their curiosity with every second passing, but also aware that she needed to hurry.

"My dear friends and family," Demeter began, an authoritative ring to her voice, her words eagerly eaten up by her enraptured audience, "I am afraid I have grave news for you all today. You all know that my only daughter, Persephone, was recently wed to the king of the underworld, my husband's brother, Hades. She was married on the orders of Zeus, though she had no wish to marry Hades, and in fact went as far as to run away in order to escape the unwanted marriage," here Demeter paused, allowing the gasps and muttering which followed her statement to subside before continuing, "I know that this is very shocking to many of you, but I assure you it is true. Persephone's escape was not successful; she was captured by Hades, kidnapped, and forcefully married to him that very evening. Since then, I have been trying in vain to rescue her, although I have failed every time I tried. I speak to you tonight not as your queen, but as a mother. A mother who is dreadfully afraid for the safety of her daughter. And I ask you to have mercy on me, to have mercy on Persephone, and help us."

As Demeter ended her impassioned plea (effectively surrendering her remaining pride to the jaws of the gods), the hall exploded in uproar. Everybody, it seemed, had something to say about her words, and those with conflicting opinions swiftly began arguments; with everyone yelling at once, and the echoes bouncing around the hall, it is not surprising that Demeter did not hear Zeus' footsteps as he approached from behind. She was still stood in front of his throne, calmly observing the chaos she had caused, when she felt the heat of a thunderbolt pressed to her back. Stiffening, she turned her neck a fraction, enough to glimpse the tall figure of her husband standing just to the side and back of her.

"What," Zeus hissed through clenched teeth, pressing the thunderbolt in his hand slightly further into her skin as he spoke, "what exactly is going on here?"

"I have rallied the troops, my dear, we are all set to take our daughter back," Demeter spoke loud enough for those nearest to overhear her, and they stopped talking, waiting for Zeus' words. Gradually, the rest of the assembled realised that something was going on, and a hush spread across the entire hall.

Seeing that Zeus had frozen, unable to decide how he should act in this situation, Demeter wasted no time in taking control.

"You need not worry for Persephone's safety any longer, my king, for I am sure that together we can beat Hades and rescue her from his clutches," she had to bite her lip slightly to stop the smug smirk which was threatening to spread across her face. Had she been able to see Zeus' expression, she may have changed her mind about that smirk, as well as changing her mind about her bravery. His face was stony, but his eyes glimmered with untold fury, giving him a wild, untameable air.

"Of course, my dear, we shall rescue Persephone, and then I will be able to give you the attention you deserve," the thinly veiled threat went unnoticed by almost all of those present, and those who noticed merely gave the pair suspicious looks before deciding that they must have been imagining things. Demeter winced slightly as the bolt her husband still held against her was pushed even more painfully into her back, breaking the skin. She could feel a trail of hot blood trickling slowly down the small of her back.

"Please friends," Zeus called, a fake smile planted firmly onto his face, "go, help my daughter in any way you can, we are very grateful for any help you can offer." His words had the desired effect, and the gods began to file from the room, some still bickering between themselves. Eventually, Zeus and Demeter were alone in the hall, and a shiver of fear worked its way up Demeter's back.

Zeus said nothing for several minutes; Demeter could feel his hot breath on her neck as she waited for him to speak. Still silent, Zeus pulled the thunderbolt from its place at her back, snagging the skin as he pulled it out and causing her to flinch slightly at the sharp sting of pain it caused. He slowly began to circle her, playing with her, as a cat plays with a mouse before killing it. Still neither of them spoke, Demeter because she was too afraid to break the spell of silence, and Zeus because he was, at this moment, too furious for words.

Stopping in front of her, he grabbed her chin, forcing her gaze away from the floor and into his eyes. His hold on her chin was uncomfortably tight, and suddenly the pain in her back was not the most important worry on her mind anymore. The anger she saw in his eyes was hideous to behold, and Demeter began to wonder if she would live to see her daughter again. The fear winding through her mind began to build in pressure, causing a sheen of sweat to appear on her brow, and a slight tremble to take hold of her hands. And still the pressure built; every second Zeus stared into her eyes was another second that the fear multiplied in her mind, until finally, when she could no longer think straight, he spoke.

"You will regret this. She is not worth it, and I will make sure that you realise it," his words were soft, blunt, and to the point. He let go of her face and strode away from his wife, waves of rage still rolling off of him like heat. Demeter slumped backwards into the throne, alone in the hall at last. The tension in her mind snapped, and sobs began to wrack their way through her body; great, shuddering convulsions of grief. Tears poured from her eyes as she wondered what was to become of her. She had given everything for a daughter she barely knew, and for what? Zeus would thwart this plan as he had her others (though how he knew that becoming the protector of marriage wouldn't work in her favour, he did not know), and she would be left in ruins. What had she done?

* * *

A/N: Yum yum quick uploads are nice :)


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Persephone was taking a nap in the library when Hades found her. The stress of the last few days, coupled with the lack of food had left her exhausted, and she had found when reading a particularly large book on the customs of the underworld that it was nigh on impossible to keep her eyes open.

So, when Hades turned up in search of her, he found her curled up against the arm of a spacious, royal blue settee, book still laid open in her hands, her eyes tightly closed, and her mouth slightly open as gentle snores crept from it. Even with her sunken features and unkempt hair, she was breathtaking in that moment. So innocent, he thought, still only a child, really, but shouldering the burdens of a grown woman. Unwilling to wake her, knowing that she needed the rest, he took a seat next to his young love, and, retrieving the abandoned book from her arms, settled down to wait for her to wake.

He didn't have long to wait, however, as he had barely finished reading the first page of the book (which was dreadfully boring, he thought, not understanding how she could bring herself to read it) before Persephone stirred next to him, her eyes squinting open to take in his imposing form next to her, a startled look passing momentarily over her features. A smile graced her lips, however, as her brain clicked in, and, realising who he was, she reached out to her husband, taking comfort in the safety his arms provided. A small sigh escaped her lips as she buried her head deep into Hades' strong chest and his arms tightened around her, promising to never let her go.

Except seconds later, that is exactly what he did, and for a moment or two, more specifically the moment it took for her to fall sideways onto the settee, and the moment after that as she lay there, she was thoroughly disgruntled at such a rude departure. However, Persephone soon forgave her love as she noticed that he had knelt in front of her, his knees pressed to the edge of the settee, a ring held in his outstretched hand.

Hades said nothing at first, Persephone's ungainly gaping amusing him enough that he forgot for a moment that he was meant to be speaking, not staring. Clearing his throat slightly self-consciously, he began.

"I realise that I didn't do this properly the first time, and it occurred to me today that perhaps the dissolution of our marriage was a blessing in disguise. This time, things will go as they should have done in the first place," Hades stopped, an uncomfortable look on his face as he realised that there was a possibility of his love saying no to him. There was no way he could back out now though, was there? What if he were just lining himself up for more heartbreak? Before his thoughts could run even more wildly amok, Persephone interrupted his inner monologue, reminding Hades of what he was doing.

"Go on, my dear," she whispered softly, smiling affectionately up at him (for even though he was kneeling, she had not moved from her position lying down on the settee, and so she had to look up to see his face).

"Yes, ah. Persephone, my dearest, the love I feel for you is more than any love I have felt for anything else, as long as I have lived. Will you do me the honour of, again, becoming my wife?" At this, he held the ring out to her, almost begging her with his eyes to take it.

"Of course, my love, my king, my husband, of course I will!" Persephone gushed, happiness dancing in her eyes. She giggled in joy, and Hades stared in amazement as he saw her old self emerge for a moment; she looked carefree and innocent, just as she had before this mess had begun. And Hades felt relief in his heart as a burden he didn't know he had been carrying was let go; he was able to make her happy, and that was all that mattered in that instant.

Persephone quickly held out her hand, desperate to have a wedding ring on her finger once more. Casting aside the old ring (the only remnant of their first marriage), Hades slipped the new one onto her bony finger. The gold band glinted in the flickering light cast by the torch hanging on the wall behind them, and the red stone glimmered.

"It's perfect," Persephone squealed, wincing at the how childish she had sounded. Hades didn't notice, however, he was too busy gathering her up in his arms, ecstatic that he had caused such a reaction in his beautiful fiancée.

And they were happy, in that moment, nothing more or less than two people in love.

* * *

It was evening and Demeter was alone, looking through the window of the bed chamber she shared with Zeus, a broken expression on her face, when a knock sounded at the door. Her long, red robe swirled around her feet as she turned quickly at the unexpected sound. Cautiously opening the door, her confusion was heightened as she found herself face to face with Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

"May I come in, my queen, for I wish to speak with you, and the subject would not be welcome to some ears," the young god cast furtive looks around him, as though expecting Zeus, his father, to suddenly appear from behind a column.

"Of course, child, come," Demeter told him, opening the door wider and moving aside to allow him passage into her chamber. Quickly, he slid past her, closing the door behind him. Demeter was beginning to grow worried by the young boy's suspicious behaviour, and surreptitiously backed away from him.

"What is it you wanted to speak with me about?" she asked, for although he was worrying her, she could not deny that he had also piqued her curiosity.

"I am sorry for intruding upon your bed chamber," Hermes started, looking around and not meeting her eyes, embarrassed, as though he had only just realised where he was, and who he was alone there with. Young he may have been, but he was not naive. Focusing his thoughts again, he brushed his chestnut hair from his eyes and spoke again; "I have a plan, concerning your daughter, Persephone."

Hearing her daughter's name surprised Demeter, although, she chastised herself, she should have known that it would be about Persephone the moment she found Hermes at her door; what else would the messenger god, who also happened to be _guide to the underworld _want with her? Shaking her head at her own idiocy, she looked again to Hermes, indicating with a nod of her head for him to carry on.

"As you know, part of my duties as a god is to be guide to the underworld, taking all of the human souls who deserve punishment there to be judged. As such, I go there every day, and, although I have not caught a glimpse of your daughter yet, I am certain that I would find no trouble in sneaking in and searching the place. Once I have found Persephone, I can bring her back to you safely," the nervous boy finished with vigorous head nodding, obviously eager to please his queen, and to have her approve of his plan.

Demeter played with a strand of her hair, deep in thought. Hermes' idea definitely had potential, although if Persephone had eaten food from the underworld, then even kidnapping her could not keep her from Hades. But that was a problem to be tackled later, if need be, and for now the only plan she had was that of the young messenger god. Slowly, Demeter nodded, having made her decision.

"Alright, Hermes, I will let you try. But if you are caught, then you must run, leave Persephone- we will find another way. I shall not have Hades taking another of Zeus' children," her voice was stern, though a smile lingered on her lips, proud of this child who was willing to risk his life to save another. At her words, Hermes' face split into an enormous grin, and thanking her profusely for the chance, he fled from the room in his winged shoes, taking with him Demeter's best hope for her daughter.

Alone again, Demeter went back to the window, silently staring through it, though she wasn't actually seeing anything in front of her. Her attention was too busy with her thoughts, wondering, yet again, if she had made the right decision. Although this time, she may have sent a young boy to his doom.

* * *

A/N: As usual, let me know if there are any mistakes, and thank you very much for your reviews :)

Keep them coming, they make me smile :D


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Hermes flicked his wrist, pulling ever so slightly on the chain he held firmly in his hand. Shackled to this chain, a long line of humans stumbled clumsily along behind him. Oh, how he wished that he could put his winged shoes to good use, and run the long distance from the human realm to the underworld. But, alas, he must be burdened with hundreds of damned humans every time he made the trip.

His feet made no sound as they danced across the ground, moving forwards quickly, only to be pulled backwards by the weight of the zombie like humans on the end of his chain. Disgusting things they were, he thought as he yet again retraced his steps slightly to allow them to catch up, all red raw skin and blank, staring eyes. He dealt with them every day, and yet still he could not shake the feeling of unease that crept over him every time he was in close proximity to one of the things. Perhaps this was one of the reasons behind his wanting to get the job done quickly, though it was by no means the only one. He was a child, after all, and, god or not, he wanted to do the things that children did. He wanted to play in the meadows, to chase the rabbits, to sneak out and visit the human realm. But he had been given a duty, and, as his father always reminded him, duty comes first, before fun, before family, before love. Duty first. And so, every day, he led his hundreds of assigned humans to the back entrance of the underworld, the one that only he and Hades knew about.

Sometimes Hermes wondered how none of the other gods had noticed that no-one ever used the cave entrance other than Hades himself. Did they not wonder how the humans entered the realm of the damned for their punishment? Did they not wonder how Hermes delivered them? For they all knew of his duty. The only reason for their ignorance, Hermes had concluded was that they simply did not care. They had better, happier things to think of, and so they preferred to ignore the existence of the underworld, along with the existence of its cruel king.

Although Hades was not cruel, though no-one would ever believe Hermes if he told them that. He was grumpy, certainly, but he had never been unnecessarily unkind to Hermes, for which the young god was grateful. Hades had no reason to be civil to him, especially as the boy was Hades' hated brother's son. But he was, and so, had Persephone not been his half sister, Hermes would have felt more than a slight amount of guilt for what he was about to do. As it was, the tiny niggling feeling was easily pushed to the back of his mind and ignored, determination to save his half sister overcoming it easily.

Had Hermes been older, and more mature, he may have wondered why Hades, if he was, as Hermes himself thought, a good man (though his temper was something to be reckoned with), then why had he kidnapped his half sister in the first place? And why, exactly, was he not letting her go if, as Demeter had professed, Persephone was deeply unhappy as his queen. But Hermes was young, and eager to please his elders, and so none of these ideas entered his mind as he walked the distance from the human realm to the underworld, unable to drag his thoughts away from what he was about to do.

Finally, after many hours of walking (or dancing back and forth in his case, and shuffling in the case of the humans he led), Hermes reached the tree which marked the back entrance to the underworld. Tapping thrice on its gnarled trunk allowed the young messenger entrance, and he pulled impatiently on the chain in his hand as he climbed through the unnaturally enlarged hole in its trunk. Waiting for a moment inside the tree as the humans struggled to gain access through the hole, clumsy as they were, Hermes' heart began beating faster and faster as the reality of what he was about to do caught up with him. Stomach churning in nervousness, he abandoned any pity he held for his charges and yanked harshly on the chain, pulling them roughly through the hole in the tree trunk, which immediately closed up behind them.

The young god's breathing quickened as he moved deeper into the tunnel the tree had opened on to, and for a few minutes he felt sure that he did not have the courage to go through with his plan. An image of Persephone flashed into his mind, however, and, resolve strengthened once again, he strode swiftly into the pits of the underworld, feet not making a single sound.

Before he had gone too far, Hades himself stepped out of the shadows, and into the messenger's path.

"I shall take them from here," he spoke softly, eyes glinting with malice as he took in the sight of the pathetic humans being towed along behind his delivery boy.

"Y-yes, my king," Hermes cursed himself silently for allowing the stammer to creep into his speech, betraying his anxiety. He breathed a sigh of relief, however, when Hades merely gave him a strange look, before allowing the moment to pass and holding out his hand for the chain Hermes still clung to. The young god stared at the hand for a second, before remembering the line behind him, and handed the chain over, deliberately not meeting Hades' eyes.

With only a swift, searching look over the boy, curious as to his strange behaviour, Hades grabbed the chain and left, dragging the line of humans along behind him, not caring when their already red raw skin began scraping along the ground and thing, keen wails escaped from their lips.

Hermes watched him leave before casting a furtive glance around, double checking that he was, indeed, alone. Reassured, he jumped slightly, allowing his winged shoes to keep him airborne and rose to the very top of the tunnel, staying out of sight in the shadows. Sticking to the ceiling, he sped down the tunnel and into the palace, hoping with all his heart that he found his half sister quickly.

* * *

Persephone was, as always, in the library. She was seated this time in her favourite arm chair (upholstered in a deep, forest green, it reminded her of the forests surrounding the cave entrance to her home), and for once no book graced her lap with its presence. Instead, she was spending her time alone looking at the ring on her hand, wondering at all that had happened in so short a time. She could hardly believe that she had been so lucky as to find love, power and wealth all in the form of one man. Lost in these thoughts as she was, she didn't notice at first when a blur of colour sped into the room, stopping directly opposite her, hovering inches above the ground.

She did notice, however, when the blur of colour suddenly grabbed her and hoisted her over its shoulder (though Hermes would never admit it, this last part was done with great difficulty, for although she had lost a great deal of weight over the last month or so, he was still only a boy, and not particularly strong for his age). Before Persephone even had time to utter a noise of surprise, let alone release the scream which was brewing in her throat, she had been taken from the room, and was being hustled down the corridors of the palace. As soon as she had gathered her wits together enough to realise that she was being kidnapped (or _rescued,_ as her mother would surely say, Persephone thought spitefully), she attempted to let loose this scream, only to find that with the speed they were travelling, any attempt to open her mouth did little more than allow the air rushing past them to steal her breath away.

This didn't stop her trying, however, and all the way through the palace, her mouth was wide open in silent screams, though none could see this, moving as quickly as they were through the corridors of what she now saw as her home. It was only when they burst from the cave and into the sky above the forest that she gave up, knowing that any hope of her beloved hearing her silent pleas for help was gone now. A lone tear escaped her eye as she thought of the injustice of it all; of how she could be ripped so cruelly from everything she loved.

Settling her head down where it lay on Hermes' back, the young goddess closed her eyes in defeat, unable to see a way in which her fiancée could manage to save her from this.

* * *

A/N: My chapters seem to be getting shorter :/ Sorry about that.

Also, there were questions about why _all _of the humans going to the underworld are damned, so I thought I'd take a second and explain it. I'm working on the assumption that the underworld is basically the hell, with another afterlife available for those humans who did good in their lives. One of the Titan gods, Cronus, who, incidentally was Zeus' father, was made (by Zeus) into the ruler of the Elysian Islands, 'home of the blessed dead'. So, Hades only gets to deal with the scumbag humans in the underworld, and meets none of the decent humans.

Thanks again for the lovely reviews :)


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

When Hermes came crashing through the bedchamber window with her daughter in tow, Demeter thought at first that she must be dreaming. She had been in the middle of taking her down in order to go to bed when it had happened, and so her only reaction at first was to let go of the braid she was holding in shock. Zeus, unfortunately, had no such reaction, jumping straight from the bed where he lay to grab his daughter roughly from the figure of his son.

Hermes could only look on in bewilderment as his father proceeded to throw her across the room, where she hit the wall, landing awkwardly on the ground.

"Zeus, NO!" Demeter snapped herself out of her trance in time to stop her husband from throwing the thunderbolt he had quickly conjured at her daughter. The second of hesitation Zeus made at this yell was all that Persephone needed to gather herself and flee from the room, away from the murderous ambitions of her father.

"F-father?" Damn, Hermes thought, there was that stutter again. Zeus turned his eyes on his son, causing the young god to cower under his father's gaze.

"Yes, _son,_ what is it?" Zeus spoke through clenched teeth, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Hermes changed his mind about questioning his king's actions; young he might be, but he was quite sure that drawing attention to himself when in the presence of an unstable god was a very bad idea.

"Nothing, father," Hermes said neutrally, this time managing to keep the traitorous stutter from his speech. He paused a second to see if his father would bother to reply; when he didn't, Hermes used his favourite talent to flee from the room, away from the mess he had found himself in the middle of.

Whirling around, intent on taking out his rage on his wife, Zeus suddenly realised that he was alone in the room, Demeter having stolen away whilst he was conversing with his son. A yell of rage left his lips, and he hurled the thunderbolt he had conjured for Persephone at the nearest wall, reducing it to rubble.

Storming from the chamber, he began a furious search for the two women who seemed to cause him so many problems. Oh, how he rued the day he had ever thought to marry Demeter.

* * *

She ran wildly, as soon as she left the room. Paying no attention to where she was going, Persephone only thought was to get as much distance between herself and her murderous father as was possible. It was with some surprise then, that after only a few minutes of frantic fleeing the young goddess found herself bursting through the doors of the main hall. Momentum carried her to the middle of the room, at which point she noticed the crowd of gods and goddesses around her and decided that it was probably safe to stop running. Also, they were staring at her, so she thought it would be best to endeavour to act as normally as possible, hoping that they would lose interest and return to what they were doing.

She had no such luck, however, as most of their previous conversations had revolved around how (or in some cases whether or not to) they were to save Persephone. And so when the object of their rescue plans burst into their midst so dramatically, she was not going to brush off their curiosity that easily.

Before any of them had a chance to do more than stare in shock, however, Demeter ran through the open doors, head swivelling on her neck as she searched the room for her daughter. Upon seeing Persephone just stood in the centre of the room, she ran to her daughter, gathering her skinny form tightly into an embrace. At first, the embrace was not returned, but then, slowly, Persephone's arms made their way up to hug her mother. After all, the young goddess reasoned, she had been acting out of love, and doing what she had thought was right. A wave of shame rushed over her at the thought of the names she had been calling her mother over the last few days, never once stopping to remember why Demeter was trying to take her away from the underworld. Pushing the feeling away for now, Persephone took comfort in her mother's arms, possibly for the first time in her life. To her surprise, tears began to leak from her eyes as Demeter held her, until she let go and sobs wracked her body, uncaring that all of the inhabitants of the mountain of the gods were watching her break down, she just cried.

She cried for her mother, who loved her, and whom she had been so cruel to. She cried for Hades, her love, who was sure to know that she was missing by know, and she hated that she was causing him pain and worry, heaven knows he'd had enough of that already in his lifetime. She cried for Hermes, the young boy who had thought he was doing the right thing. She cried for Zeus, the father she had thought she could trust, only for him to turn out to be the enemy. And she cried for herself, scared as she was, for who knew what would happen to her now that she had been taken from the safety of the underworld?

After what seemed an eternity, her tears lessened, and her shoulders stopped shaking. Demeter held her daughter in her arms for a while longer, driven to tears herself as she watched her daughter cry. When she was finally released, Persephone pointedly ignored the hall of people staring silently at the scene before them, instead choosing to look up into her mother's eyes.

"What is to become of me now, mother?" She whispered, hoping that none of the others would hear her. She was out of luck, however, as Zeus yet again made an unwelcome entrance into the hall at an inopportune time.

"What is to become of you, dear daughter?" He asked, an enormous, fake, jovial grin splashed across his sculpted face, "Why, you are to live with us again, to be free and happy. I am sorry that I made such a mistake in marrying you to my brother; I fear I acted out of a deep wish to see you both happy, but I forgot that you were such different people that it would never work." The lie rolled easily off his tongue, calming the whispers in the room which had been saying that he did it on purpose, that Persephone had angered him and this had been her punishment.

Persephone herself looked at him in disbelief, anger flaring in her eyes before she reined it in, knowing that to argue with the king of the gods in front of all his subjects would not come to any good, for either of them. Instead, she chose to tell him something he couldn't possibly know, something that was sure to shock her entire audience.

"But father, Hades and I are very much in love, in fact after our marriage was unfairly dissolved by Demeter, he asked me again, and I said yes," Persephone spoke in low tones, knowing that they would carry across the hall to her father. She held her hand up, allowing her ring to glint in the sunlight streaming through the windows of the hall. A shocked silence rang over the hall for a second, as everyone craned to catch a glimpse of the evidence. But then the silence was over, and the whispers began. Within minutes, the whispers turned to normal speech, which turned to raised voices, to yelling, until nobody could hear anything in the din.

And throughout this, Zeus and Persephone stood stock still, staring at each other across the hall, she still holding out her hand with the ring on it, defiantly flaunting her engagement. His eyes burned with anger, hers with resolve, and neither of them dared to move, for whoever won this staring contest would have the upper hand.

Demeter was somewhat in shock. Persephone was in love with Hades? Then why had she asked to be rescued, why had she not sent a message telling her, or met with her outside the cave again? Why had she simply left her mother in the dark, to worry about rescue attempts for a girl who didn't even want rescuing! And '_unfairly _dissolved'? She had asked for help, and she throws any attempts to do just that back in her mother's face! This is just Persephone through and through, she thought with a silent snarl. It did not matter that she had matured as of late, the basic personality was the same; she was still selfish and paranoid, willing to believe anything of Demeter, anything that would let her focus her hate on her mother.

Fuming, Demeter glanced between the two of them, her husband and her daughter, still staring at each other, willing the other to back down. How similar they are, she thought, with a grim laugh which drew some strange looks from those nearest her, how could I have not seen it before? For a second, Demeter considered confronting them both, but she disregarded the idea almost instantly, choosing instead to sweep majestically from the room, leaving pandemonium in her wake.

* * *

When Zeus originally stepped into the hall to see Persephone and Demeter at the centre of attention, he had every hope that he would still be able to salvage the situation. Sure, he would have to put up with his daughter for a while longer, but his reputation as stern but fair would remain intact.

But then she flashed that ring at him, and his hopes dropped, what could he say right now to make this go his way? Luckily, the other gds were making such a din that anything he said would go unheard anyway, giving him an iron clad excuse to stall for the minute. Staring Persephone down, he wracked his mind, thinking of anything he could tell the assembled gods and goddesses so that he could portray himself in the right.

And then, it came to him. So simple, so obvious- tell the truth. How strange, that he hadn't thought of it before, but then again, the truth was not something he was well accustomed to telling, and so perhaps it was not so surprising. Now, to get everyone's attention, he thought, dragging his eyes away from Persephone, though not fast enough to miss the smirk which crossed her face as he looked away. Stupid girl thinks she's won, Zeus thought savagely. Faster than the speed of light, he conjured a lightning bolt and threw it at the ceiling, where it exploded, showering sparks over all those in the hall. The ceiling itself remained unharmed, merely reflecting the attack.

"My dear friends, family, and peers," Zeus began, his voice authoritative but friendly, "if I could ask you to please quiet down a little, I wish to have a talk with my daughter." Many of the gods, especially the older ones, had the grace to look slightly ashamed of themselves for having to be chastised so. Facing Persephone, he saw the slight uncertainty on her face, and she had finally lowered her ring hand, no longer flaunting it.

"Thank you," Zeus directed this at all in the hall, before addressing his daughter, "May I ask, Persephone, why you did not think to tell your mother or I of this development? We were left with the impression that you were trapped in a loveless marriage, one in which you were deeply unhappy. Unless, of course, this is all some trick of my brother's. Perhaps he has enchanted you to believe you are in love with him," alright, he thought to himself, perhaps the truth would have been boring. After all, it was better this way, as he could make out that everything was Hades' fault, rather than allowing any of the blame to fall on himself.

"What?" Persephone all but screeched back at him, "He has not enchanted me, I fell in love of my own free will! How dare you suggest such a thing?" There was a distinct hysterical note to her voice, Zeus noted with pleasure, that would definitely work in his favour.

"I am merely voicing my concerns, dear child, concerns which I am sure that many of my fellow gods are also having," Zeus explained patiently, as though he was speaking to a very young child.

"Yes, well your concerns are unfounded! Hades has no more bewitched me than I have him! Now let me go! I must get back to my fiancée, and you will not keep me from him!" In her fit of frustration, Persephone decided that it would be a good idea to attempt to push her way past Zeus. Pitting the strength of a young goddess against the physical prowess of the king of all gods, however, proved to be a very large mistake.

"You see why I fear you have been bewitched!" Zeus called, holding her struggling form tightly within his arms, "he has turned you against myself and your mother, you are not acting as you used to." The king had realised as soon as she had moved that he could use her escape attempt as evidence against her, and did not waste a second in exploiting her actions for his own benefit. Holding his daughter to her chest so that none of the assembled could hear her muffled protests, Zeus adopted a grim, but worried look on his face, acting his part well.

"Guards!" he called out, indicating for two of the silent watchers to come forth, "Take her to the tower room above my bed chamber, and lock her in. We must wait for the enchantment to wear off, and she must not be allowed back to that damned Hades in the meantime." He waved the guards away, pushing the figure in his arms towards them before turning his back on them and strolling casually up to his throne. Once there, he faced the crowd and began to speak.

"Friends, I thank you for your help, especially my son, Hermes, to whom all credit for rescuing my beloved daughter goes. Fear not, we will quickly ascertain the cause of her behaviour, and have our darling Persephone back in no time," finishing with an appropriately hopeful look on his face, Zeus strode quickly back through his friends, family and peers and left the room, feeling rather pleased with himself.

The only problem being, of course, that he would now have to put up with that blasted daughter of his all the time. But no matter, he thought to himself, she will get what's coming to her, and then Zeus would be left in peace, with his power and his women for company once more.

* * *

A/N: A slightly longer chapter for y'all.

Only five more chapters and an epilogue to go :D

Hope you're all still enjoying the story :)


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

The tower room was the highest point on the entire mountain, with beautiful views showing every valley and forest, every lake and every building in the entire realm of the gods. Or, at least, that is what Persephone assumed the views were, as the only window in the chamber was small and high up, and she was not interested enough to try to look through it, preferring to dwell on her terrible situation instead. The stone walls gave a cold, uninviting look to the room, though perhaps, she mused, this was merely a side effect of the room becoming her prison. A large bed dominated most of the space, with bright red hangings draped around it (a sharp contrast to Hades' black, and yet she could not help thinking of her love every time she looked at these drapes), with the only other item of furniture in the room being a large, carved, wooden, trunk, which for the first few weeks of her stay had held nothing, until somebody outside thought to bring her some spare robes and such. Food was delivered once a day through a hatch in the door (which was far too sturdy to break through; she had tried many times) and sometimes, if she was lucky, the servants would whisper news to her as they passed her plate through.

This was also the only way she could keep track of time; in the first few weeks she had had no clue as to how long she had been there (to her mind it felt an eternity), until one day about three weeks into her incarceration, a young male servant had taken pity on her, and, after she had begged for news, whispered the date as he handed her a meal of fruit and bread. Since then, she had asked everyday for anything they could tell her, be it big or small. Some would ignore her, unwilling to take the risk, some would tell her everything they knew, taking pity on the girl in the tower but none told a soul that she had even asked, knowing the trouble it would cause if Zeus found out.

They may not be willing to help her escape, but they were her only source of comfort, trapped and alone as she was. She didn't even have a book to pass the time (though this was also something she had begged for, to no avail), and was forced to spend her days dreaming of her fiancée (though this was really no hardship for her part).

But in terms of her physical health, her incarceration in the tower was doing her a great deal of good. Whilst she had begun to eat again whilst in the underworld, she had never progressed to eating full meals, as she didn't want to make herself sick. However, in her room, boredom was soon to take over, and she had taken to eating simply to break the monotony of the day. As such, she had put back on some of the weight she had lost; her previously hollow cheeks were filled out and plump again, her bony wrists had gained some flesh, and she had even restored some of the womanly curves she had had before her marriage.

All in all, she was beautiful again, and yet even this afforded her no source of comfort. What good was beauty when her beloved was not there to see it? Her looks were wasted on the servants, unappreciative as they were, and she had not been given a mirror, so she herself could not even admire her beauty (though she was not so sure that she actually wanted to, her new, mature, persona said no whilst her default, spoiled one said yes, yes, and definitely yes). Not that regaining her beauty could really help at all in her situation, she had thought bitterly many times, annoyed at the lack of use her one talent had.

She was powerless, really. There was no way out of her tiny room, not even any way for her to pass messages to Hades, and after months of being alone in her chamber, she was forced to assume that nobody on the outside minded that she was being imprisoned by her own father. Why had Demeter not tried to save her? Or Hades? She had asked herself these questions many, many times, and had had to come to the conclusion that she was mistaken.

Persephone's mother was not her saviour, and could not be relied on to rescue her anytime someone decided to kidnap her. However, nor was Demeter the vindictive woman that Persephone's thoughts had often portrayed her as, for she had acted in what she thought was her daughter's best interests again and again. Rather, she was somewhere in the middle, neither entirely good, nor entirely evil, but instead somewhat grey, in relation to her dealings with Persephone, anyway. Thinking that she had been mistaken about her mother's love was painful, but not half as painful as thinking she had been wrong about Hades' feelings towards her was.

She had honestly thought that he had loved her. That he would do anything to keep her safe, to keep her with him. But he had not come, and she had not heard even a word from the servants about him, and so she had to assume that he had not come to the palace demanding her immediate return. He had not tried to get her back. He did not care about her, and even if she did ever manage to escape her prison, she had no home in the underworld to return to. It had obviously all been nothing but an elaborate joke to him, nothing more than a way to try and get revenge on the brother he hated.

She had often wondered why these thoughts of her beloved did not fill her with anger at his betrayal, but was never able to come up with any sort of answer. Logically, she knew that she should hate the man for lying to her, for using her, but she was not able to conjure up a single ounce of rage directed towards the man she had learned to love. Instead, all she could feel was a gnawing ache which spread from her throat to her stomach and refused to leave her be. She still loved him, even if he had abandoned her, and for that, she hated herself more than she hated him.

* * *

It was the fifth month of her incarceration when Persephone began to notice that something odd was happening to her. The womanly curves she had grown over the months were beginning to disappear again, and the skin over her ribs was sinking in, making them more pronounced with each passing day, though she was still eating every morsel of food given to her, and the portions had not lessened. She found that she had no energy, however long she slept for, and she was suddenly incredibly glad that her room was not any bigger than it was, as then she would have had to move further to get her plate of food, something that she was not sure she could manage. Her constant hounding of the servants for information or escape had lessened, and some of the more empathetic ones were becoming quite concerned with her lack of interest in the outside world. They could do nothing, however, as to mention her silence would mean admitting to her questions, and the servants were still unwilling to lay their lives down for the sake of one girl, who may or may not be worth the trouble.

And so it was only at the end of the month, only two days from the six month mark, that Persephone was found in a comatose state, lying haphazardly across her bed, a plate of food spilt on the floor. She had not come to the hatch for her food that day, and one brave servant (in fact, it was the very same one who had first told her the date, all those months ago) had taken it upon himself to tell Demeter that he was worried, as he had called and called and gained no answer.

Demeter had reluctantly agreed to check on her daughter, though she was most unwilling to see Persephone, guilt ridden as she was for leaving her to rot in the tower for almost half a year. Upon finding her daughter in a seemingly dead state, Demeter's guilt had overwhelmed her, and she feinted on the spot, leaving it to the servant to yet again find help. This time, help came in the form of Hermes, who went straight to the main hall of the palace, and yelled what had happened for all to hear.

And so it was that news of Persephone's apparent imminent death was spread across the realm of the gods.

* * *

A/N: Gah! Only 4 more chapters (and an epilogue) to go! It seemed so much longer when I was writing it *pout*.

Anyway, thanks again for the reviews :) I'm sorry I haven't been answering them, but I just started a new job, and between that, college and general life, things have been hectic and I haven't gotten round to it yet :(

Enjoy!


	18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

When Hades discovered that his young fiancée was missing, to say he was distressed would be a severe understatement. He tore through the underworld, searching both the palace and the strange landscape beyond it, for any trace of Persephone, all the while sending messages to Zeus, ordering his brother to release her. However, his search turned up neither hide nor hair of the young goddess, and his messages to Zeus went unanswered. After only two days of waiting, hoping in vain that she would be returned safely to her home, he began to make his way up the mountain, to his brother's palace.

He was unwelcome in the palace, however, and was turned away at the doors. Of course, this did not stop the king of the underworld, and the memory of the guards' faces when he eluded them would have been a good memory, had it not been for his distressed state when it happened.

"_I am your king, as well as Zeus, and you do not want to cross me," Hades told them, in his most threatening voice. The two facing him were braver than most, however, for although their knees knocked together in fear, they did not back down._

"_I know, s-sir, but we have a duty to protect the palace and its inhabitants, and we have reason to believe that you are a danger to at least one person within its walls," the more courageous of the two answered him, whilst the other nodded vigorously, an apologetic smile on his face. _

_Hades smiled nastily, though inside he was somewhat impressed by their dedication, and took a step backwards. Still grinning, he began to call on the shadows. The shadows around him, including those of the guards, began to darken, twisting and turning, stretching towards the figure of Hades. Slowly, he began to fade into the shadows around him, until nothing was left, as though he had never been standing there at all. _

When he had appeared in the main hall of the palace, there had been uproar. Hades had ignored this, and confronted Zeus, who claimed that Hades had tricked the goddess into loving him, and therefore he was not able to see her, for fear that he would renew the enchantment on Persephone. Their argument about these claims lasted all of thirty seconds, the exact amount of time it had taken Zeus to signal some of the stronger gods to throw him out of the building, before forbidding all present to talk of the incident, lest it get back to Persephone, and renew her longing for Hades.

Hades' stake out at the palace had not worked either, nor had his attempt at gaining spies within its walls. His other dozen plans (including hundreds of messages to his brother, informing him of the seeds Persephone had eaten, and how she must now live in the underworld, lest she become ill, which was returned with a note at the bottom in his brother's hand stating '_and?_') gained no results either, and by the time the end of the fifth month rolled around, he was becoming less and less hopeful of any kind of reunion with his beloved Persephone. The underworld was suffering for it, as most days he had no wish to see to his duties, preferring to stay in the library, soaking up the residues of her presence that she had left. This meant that a back log of humans was piled in the tunnels leading to the back entrance, causing a stench of rotting flesh to spread throughout Hades' home. Not that it felt like much of home without Persephone, anyway.

He had even tried sending notes to Demeter, though he hated her with a passion to rival even his hatred of her husband, but she had only sent him back a short message saying that she could do nothing to help, and that she was not sure that Persephone deserved it anyway.

It had possibly been the worst five months of his entire existence, and for the trials Hades had suffered through, that was saying something. He thought it strange sometimes, that he could love another being so completely, but it was a good sort of strange. He missed their breakfasts, and their dinners, he missed falling asleep next to her, his head buried in her hair (which, incidentally, smelt of jasmine), he missed finding her in the library, nose buried in another book so that she could learn how to fulfil her duties as his queen. And he missed the tiny things, like her smile, or the way she walked.

And never once, in all the months he had been without her, had he doubted her love for him, or his for her.

* * *

Hades was slouched in Persephone's favourite chair in the library when the messenger bird flew in. One arm was rested on the side of the green chair, but the other was held over his eyes, shielding them from the light of the candles, hundreds of which covered all of the nearby tables. So he didn't see the bird at first, lost as he was in his brooding thoughts, and it was only when the small black bird became impatient, and let out a loud squawk that Hades actually noticed its presence.

Reaching over, he grabbed the annoying creature in his fist, its tiny head only just visible, poking out from over his fingers. Snatching the scroll from its claws, he threw the poor bird towards the door, not bothering to check if it was hurt or not by his rough treatment. Scanning the scroll, his eyes widened, a haunting look of fear appearing within their depths.

Not bothering to grab a cloak, or to inform anyone of his departure, he disappeared into the shadows. The last thing to fade from sight was his eyes, still wide and scared.

* * *

Demeter had come to in her own bed, from which she had then jumped from immediately, worry for her daughter filling her mind. What was wrong with her? Why was she ill? Or was she actually dead? Questions whirled around her head, and although she knew that they would not be answered until she saw Persephone, she could not force them to leave her alone. She tore through corridors until she found Hermes, and after questioning him roughly, she found that Persephone had been put, for the time being in her old bed chamber, though he could not tell the distraught mother the state of the young goddess's health.

Changing direction, it took her all of half a minute to reach her daughter's chamber and burst into it. The room was dotted with people; Persephone lay on the bed, still unconscious; examining her was a servant; Zeus stood to the side, trying to look worried, but mostly just coming across as bored; and a few other servants stood at the doorway, looking concernedly at the figure on the bed.

"How is she?" gushed Demeter, hurrying over to kneel next to the bed.

"Um, I cannot really say, my queen," the servant told her, nervous to be speaking to someone of such power, "she is breathing, and her heart is beating, so her body lives, but we cannot get her to wake up. She appears as though she has not eaten for months, and yet those servants that carry her food to her assure me that she hands them empty plates. I don't know what to tell you, I'm afraid, as I cannot think of a single reason for her to be acting this way."

Demeter sobs slightly at the news, so caught up in her own grief that she almost didn't hear the words her husband muttered after the servant had finished speaking.

"Excuse me?" she drawled coldly, hoping that she had not heard him correctly, "Did you just say that Hades was right? And something about seeds?" For once, Zeus betrayed his shock on his face, it seemed that he had not quite realised that he had spoken aloud. When he didn't answer, Demeter stood and approached her husband.

"You did, didn't you? You just admitted that you could have saved our daughter from this ever happening to her! How dare you?" She screamed at him, pounding his chest with her fists.

"Don't touch me, woman!" Zeus shouted, regaining his senses after his slip. For a second, it looked as though he was about to say more, but he stopped himself and turned, striding from the room and slamming the door in his wake.

After a second of shock at his sudden departure, Demeter broke down for a minute, falling to her knees and sobbing into her hands. She didn't notice that the aura of light which usually surrounded her figure was slowly twisting and changing as her anger at her husband intensified. Nor did she notice (though this one we cannot blame her for, for there was no way she could have seen it) that down in the human realm, the air was beginning to chill, and a cold wind was beginning to blow leaves from the trees. No, she noticed none of it, not even when her anger was under control and she managed to force herself to stop crying.

Standing again, she spared her daughter a single glance, sure that if she looked for any longer that she would not be able to leave her there, she would not be able to abandon Persephone again. With the burden of guilt set heavy on her heart, Demeter walked calmly from the room, intent on finding her messenger bird immediately and sending a message to Hades, asking him to do what he could for her daughter.

No matter how she hated the god of the underworld (and how she knew he hated her), she had no other choice if she wanted to save her daughter. For she did, she realised, want Persephone safe, no matter who she loved, nor how much like her father she was becoming.

She was still Persephone, still her daughter, and she still deserved a chance at life.

* * *

A/N: Continuing thanks for all reviews, alerts, and favourites :) It means a lot to me that people are enjoying the story :)


	19. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Persephone lay in her chamber, barely breathing. Her white blonde hair was fanned across her pillow, and every so often her blue eyes would flicker under closed lids. The way she had been laid looked almost as though she was dead, in her coffin, rather than alive (though only just) and in her own bed for the first time in almost a year. The slight rise and fall of her chest was the only indicator that she still lived, unless one was patient enough to wait long enough to feel the blood sluggishly move through her veins, creating a very weak pulse.

At her side, on the bed next to her, lay Demeter, holding onto her daughter's hand, stroking it soothingly in the hope that Persephone could feel it, and would be comforted by the touch. She had just sent the message to Hades, and instructed the palace guards that they were to let him enter (though she only got some confused looks back). The burden of guilt that lay in the mother's chest was almost excruciatingly heavy now, and for the first time in six months she truly questioned her decision that day in the hall. Had she been too rash? She had been heartless, surely, to cast aside her daughter because of a resemblance to the father, however uncanny and terrifying these similarities may be. But she had been frightened, afraid that Persephone would become cruel as Zeus had, that she would become manipulative and power hungry, for after all, the young goddess was well on her way to possessing all of these traits and more (vanity, arrogance and pride being just a few of them) before she had been married to Hades.

Wait, Demeter thought, unconsciously ceasing her stroking of her daughter's hand, had she really just thought that? That Hades had been a positive influence on Persephone? But of course, he had been, she realised with shock. Even after a few weeks, her daughter had become more mature, more of a woman, and a goddess, than she ever had been before the ordeal. She was far more distraught also, obviously, though if Persephone was really in love with Hades then that despair must have disappeared rather quickly. Her daughter, in love with Hades. It was a strange thought, really, that the tiny, innocent babe she had given birth to had become a woman who would willingly fall in love with the god of the underworld.

And yet, he must love her back, as Demeter had seen in recent months. Hades search for his fiancée had spanned both realms, and his attempts to break into the palace had been numerous, and very ingenious, some of them. There was no denying, she reluctantly admitted to herself, that the two were in love. Persephone ate freely of the food of the underworld, when she would never have died of starvation. She was a goddess, after all, and though lack of food would be most uncomfortable, and would leech away at her body, it would not be able to kill her. But she had eaten anyway, and stayed with Hades when Demeter had given her an easy way out.

Perhaps it was possible. But if it, in fact, was, then Demeter had made some very cruel mistakes, very cruel indeed, and she was unsure if Persephone would ever be able to forgive her for any of them. Maybe if she had not left her daughter in the tower, there may have been hope for their relationship yet, but she had been weak, and afraid of being controlled by another like Zeus. She hated the power her husband had over her, almost as much as she hated herself for falling for his lies all those years ago, when she had not yet realised his true nature.

Her aura shivered around her, and down on earth, a cold wind roared through the lands, bringing with it frozen lakes and rivers. The people of earth huddled around fires, safe indoors, wondering how they would manage to survive the change in weather, and cursing whoever had angered the gods so.

* * *

It was perhaps hours later (though Demeter was not really in a well enough state of mind that she was paying attention to the passing of time) that Hades arrived unannounced, barging through the door in a hurry, shouts of protest trailing in his wake.

"Quickly, woman, help me get her up!" he barked towards the distraught goddess, who had jumped from the bed at his dramatic entrance.

"Hades... you came for her... it's true then?" she asked slowly, disregarding his orders in favour of getting herself some peace of mind.

"What's true, you stupid woman?" Hades asked roughly. Realising that she would not help, he stormed over to the bed and gathered his fiancée in his arms, marvelling at her beauty, and more than slightly overwhelmed at seeing her again after all this time.

"You love her," Demeter stated simply, no longer a question. How could she question his love after seeing the look on his face as he looked down on Persephone, comatose in his arms? There was nothing but love in that gaze, and she felt a pang of jealousy spike through her as she realised that no one, not even Zeus in the early days, had ever looked at her with such earnest devotion.

Hades looked up at the goddess in disbelief, dragging his eyes away from the vision in his arms.

"Of course I do. Now get out of my way," he snapped, pushing her aside as he headed for the door, intent on getting his love to safety immediately.

Demeter stood blankly as he ran from the chamber, her mind strangely empty of thoughts. Though her daughter would be safe now, she was still lost to Demeter, and there was now perhaps no chance of getting her daughter back, she belonged to Hades now, and Demeter had been left with nothing.

* * *

Zeus, meanwhile, was sulking. Of course, he would never have admitted that that was what he was doing, but nonetheless, the truth of the matter was that he was sulking in his bed chamber, wondering where he had gone wrong. He had let Demeter intimidate him. She had absolutely no power over him, so why would he allow her such a privilege? For Zeus was certain that it was _he _who allowed _her _ to intimidate him, for anything else would have been admitting that he had a lack of control, a lack of power in the situation, and that would just not do.

No, he had let her have the advantage, but he could not for the life of him figure out _why_. Hence the sulking.

Sighing, he pushed a hand though his wavy locks, drawing it away from his forehead. He needed to right the situation, but he had stormed away, and had no idea of what was happening now. None of this was right, he thought, when had he become so weak and careless?

"Enough," he muttered, and then, with a stronger voice, "enough!" He would not let that _woman _beat him in this game, he had ten times the power she had in her puny little body, so the only way she could possibly win, would be for Zeus to _let _her win. And that was something that he would not be doing anytime soon, he thought vindictively.

It was at that moment that a knock sounded on his chamber door, and, after Zeus had bellowed the word 'enter' towards the sound, a trembling servant edged into the room.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, s-sir," the servant stuttered, nervously looking at the floor, "b-but I've b-been sent to i-inform you that H-H-Hades sir, your b-brother, has been allowed i-into the p-p-palace, not five minutes a-ago, and has left w-with your d-daughter, sir, w-with P-Persephone."

Zeus stood slowly, turning so that he could face the poor, unfortunate servant who had been chosen to deliver the fateful message. Without speaking, Zeus conjured a thunderbolt in one hand. The servant didn't notice, eyes fixed determinedly on the floor, until it was too late what was about to happen to him. With no warning, Zeus flung the deadly bolt at the servant, who looked up only a split second before he was hit. He had no chance to escape, and was dead within seconds, but Zeus had not even stayed to see it. Immediately after flinging the bolt, he was out the door, storming furiously through the palace to discover why his damned brother had been allowed to take Persephone.

* * *

A/N: Two chapters and an epilogue left!


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

The black drapes were the same as they had been when she had left, thick and layered, blocking out all light so that she could not tell if it was day or night. Reaching out and creating a small gap in the hangings, she saw a dimly lit room, with the same small dressing table that she had left it with (put in the room specifically for her use) and the same window seat, the view of which reminded Hades everyday of his duties. Duties which he had, lately, been neglecting, though Persephone was not to know that as she awoke in her own home. A smile flitted across her face as she recognised where she was, memories of the last months not yet permeating her skull, and for a minute, she was happy.

"My dear, you are awake," Hades spoke from behind her and, turning around, she saw him lying next to her with a grin of relief on his tired-looking face. The events of her time in her father's palace came back to her suddenly, and she winced at the sudden departure of her happiness.

"What happened, my love? I only remember being in that tower, how am I here? Is it a dream?" as Persephone voiced her last concern, a tear came to her eye, distraught at the idea that this happiness was not real, and that she would not see Hades again.

"I came for you, my Persephone; you were dying in that place because you belong here, with me," he spoke softly, as though afraid of hurting her ears, and yet his quiet voice did nothing to disguise the ecstatic note to his voice, overjoyed that she had survived her ordeal and was back in his bed once more.

"You... came for me? Then... you love me? You didn't leave me?" tears were cascading down her face now, and there was a tentative hope in her voice, as though she didn't quite dare to believe what she was saying.

"Of course not! I have been trying for months, since the day you were taken to retrieve you, to get you back by my side where you belong! I love you, my dear, I love you more than life, these months without you have been pure hell," this last was whispered, a lone tear dripping from the tip of his nose. Persephone reached out her hand and gently wiped the tear tracks from his face, caressing his cheek with her thumb as she did so.

"I love you," she murmured tenderly, pulling her fiancée towards her and hugging him close. He wrapped his arms around her and clung on tightly, as though he was expecting her to disappear again.

They lay like this for hours, occasionally whispering to each other, and planting tiny kisses on the other's head, cheek or neck. Persephone was overcome with gratitude towards him for saving her from certain death, whilst Hades was still marvelling at the fact that he finally had his queen in his arms again.

Eventually, they both fell into a deep slumber, exhausted by the emotional rollercoaster of a day. And so, neither noticed when the messenger birds began to line up outside the door, pecking on it with their beaks in an effort to get the attention of the chamber's inhabitants. But the lovers slept on, basking in each other's glory for at least one night.

* * *

Morning came far too soon for Persephone's liking, and she grumbled as Hades shook her shoulder gently to wake her, causing him to chuckle loudly at her. Frowning playfully, Persephone turned over to tease him for being so cruel, but her eyes caught onto his, and she found that she had forgotten what she was about to say. In fact, she had forgotten fairly everything except his eyes.

So full of love, she thought in wonderment, and all at me. She had never felt as loved and wanted than she did in that moment. Not for all the men who had fallen for her, and professed their undying devotion to her. For she knew that Hades loved _her, _and not her beauty. He had loved her through her worst, and he loved her when she was at her best. This was real, and she did not want anything to change, for she already had everything she wanted right in front of her.

Smiling, she reached over and kissed her fiancée gently on the lips, murmuring good morning to him as she did so.

"Good morning to you also, my love," amusement rang in Hades' voice, and he had a feeling that the grin adorning his face would be difficult to remove, though he found that he did not much care in that moment.

The happy couple reluctantly left the bed sometime later, and began to dress for the day. Persephone had just slipped a fresh robe over her head, however, when she heard a faint scratching at the door. She caught Hades' eye, and his curious expression showed her that he too had heard the noise.

Cautiously, she inched open the door, peering out through the gap in order to see who (or what) was making the sound. She never got the chance to see anything more than an empty corridor, however, because as soon as she had caught a glimpse of outside the room, she was bombarded by creatures flying at her face, attacking her with their claws.

At least, that was what she thought.

She screamed, backing up into the room and flapping her arms about her face in an attempt to dissuade her attackers. Strangely enough, her pathetic tactics seemed to work. Even more strangely, Hades seemed to be laughing, and though she usually enjoyed his deep, throaty rumble, Persephone was somewhat confused as to why he would find this situation amusing in the slightest. Confusion etched deeply onto her face, she turned to her fiancée, searching for an explanation.

Before she could open her mouth to ask, however, her explanation was presented to her, in the form of several birds swooping from where they had been temporarily perched on the bed, down onto Hades' outstretched arm.

"Messenger birds," he informed her, grinning cheekily as he tried to hold in yet more laughter at the look on his young goddess's face.

"I see," she replied, stonily pursing her lips in disapproval of his amusement, before allowing herself a small smile. She never could stay angry at him for long anymore, "and what, pray tell, are their messages?" she asked. Hades' face went from beaming to frowning, as he realised the oddity of several birds needing to message him at once. Then, he remembered: he had stolen Persephone from the palace yesterday, of course Zeus and Demeter would not just let him go without there being any consequences. Well, perhaps Demeter would let it pass, but his brother never could allow anyone else to win.

Anxious now, he grabbed the four scrolls from the bird's legs, and unrolled them quickly, fumbling them in his haste. Once they were opened, his eyes scanned through their contents within a minute.

Persephone watched him, worry evident on her face as she watched him frown at the notes, the joyful expression of only a minute ago completely eradicated. After a few moments, she gathered her courage to ask him what was written in his messages.

"My love, what is wrong?" she asked, trying not to sound overly nosy, but dying to know what had worried him so.

"Zeus," the word was snarled, spat out as though Hades was trying to get the taste of something dirty out of his mouth, "Zeus is what is wrong." Persephone's face paled. Although ordinarily her intelligence was merely average, occasionally understanding shone through and this was one of those times. The second Hades had spoken her father's name, she knew that she would be forced to go back to that cursed palace. Hoping that she was wrong, she searched his face, looking for any sign that she still had a chance to live in her home, with the man who loved her. There was none.

Crossing the room, she stood in front of him, cupping her hand over his cheek, raising his head from its position so that she could look him in the eye.

"He will not take me again," she told him, with more conviction than she felt, "I will not be imprisoned again. The other gods would not allow it, I nearly died just a day ago! It is obvious that the best place for me is in the underworld, whether they approve of our union or not."

"I failed you once, and you were stolen from your home," Hades whispered, so softly that Persephone had to strain to hear him, even though she was standing so close to him.

"That was not your fault, we were both tricked. We know not to trust Hermes now, we know the weakness in the security and it will be fixed. How can Zeus have any claim over me now? We are engaged, and in love, and after my display at the main hall, months ago, then all in the kingdom should know that we are in love, unless the idiots still believe the trash my father was spewing about enchantments."

"But they do!" Hades exclaimed, pulling away from his fiancée and pacing to the other side of the room, turning once more to face her, "they _do _believe what he is saying! After all, what is more believable, that I, Hades, am worthy of the love of a beautiful young goddess, or that I have cruelly and savagely spelled you to love me, against your will?" His voice was bitter and mocking, and Persephone felt tears spring up in her eyes, though she forced them straight back down, refusing to allow him to upset her.

"Well then, let them believe what they will! Surely it does not matter, so long as we both know that no enchantments were cast, and that our love is genuine," she tried to calm him, knowing that he would merely wind himself up more if she allowed him to carry on this way.

"And that is easy for you to say, because you are beloved by everyone! It is always simple to not care what others say when all they say is good!" Hades told her, exasperated by her calm acceptance of the rumours surrounding them. How did she not see that as long as these rumours existed they would never be safe? There would always be some god trying to 'save' Persephone from him. They could not live in peace.

"Oh yes," Persephone spat out, angry now, forgetting for a minute that she was trying to calm her fiancée, not rile him up, "I'm sure that every word my father says of me is good, and my mother too. And every one of the leering gods I had to put up with every day, I am _certain _what they say of me is _excellent._"

"So a few gods appreciate your beauty, and you think you know what it feels like to be constantly hounded by accusations, by slights of your character every _single _time you step out of your home? You have _no idea!" _Hades was pacing at the other end of the chamber now, gesturing wildly with his hands, his eyes flashing angrily in Persephone's direction.

"Well, no! I don't know what you put up with, ok? But how am I supposed to? I have never cast myself in a cruel, sadistic light like you did! I understand why you did it, yes, but at the same time, you do not complain about something you brought on yourself!" Persephone knew she had gone too far when Hades stopped his pacing, staring at her as though he had never seen her before. Without bothering to answer his fiancée, the god turned and swept from the room, not bothered that he was only half dressed, a knee-length black cloth wrapped around his waist his only coverage.

Once she was alone again, Persephone fell to her knees and wept, the emotional exhaustion of not only the last few days, but the last six months in her tower, coupled with this, her first fight with Hades, overcoming her for a minute. Or for two minutes, or for half an hour. In actual fact, it turned out to be hours later when her tears finally dried up and she crawled shakily to her feet.

She sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes free of grit and adjusting her robe, which had fallen from her shoulder in her distress.

"Hades," she whispered, wanting nothing more than to be in his arms again, with the memory of their argument wiped from both of their heads. Determined to make it so (she was, after all, at heart still the spoiled child raised with everything she could ever want), she swept from the room, unconsciously mirroring her husband from hours before.

* * *

A/N: AHH! Only one chapter and an epilogue to go! Hope everyone's still enjoying it!


	21. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Hades and Persephone's argument lasted as long as it took for the young goddess to find her fiancée sat in the library, hunched over in her favourite chair. As soon as he heard her enter the room, his head snapped up and his eyes locked onto hers. Without looking elsewhere, he rose from his chair and moved towards her, taking her into his embrace, and pressing his lips to hers. They stood like that for several minutes, locked tightly into each other's arms, neither having to speak to know that the other was sorry, and that they themselves were forgiven.

"I have had another message, my dear, we are to meet with Zeus and Demeter in the clearing outside the cave, in two hours. They have, they say, a compromise they wish to strike with us," Hades told her, his voice soft and his breath tickling his young fiancée's ear, sending shivers down her spine.

"They will not take me?" Persephone asked, willing to believe anything of her father (even underhand trickery such as this), but not so sure that her mother would be willing to go along with the idea.

"They will not. Demeter is killing the humans in her grief, causing their lands to freeze so that they cannot drink from the rivers, or grow crops in the earth, and Zeus has strangely decided to care. I think he is afraid that once the humans are gone, he will no longer have anyone to worship him, and Zeus, of course, could not live with that," Hades murmured into Persephone's hair, basking in her presence, glad that she had forgiven him so easily after their fight.

"Demeter is killing?" Persephone asked in shock, unable to fit 'murderer' into her image of her mother.

"Yes, but not savagely. She is merely withdrawing her power from the lands, showing Zeus what will happen if he crosses her. I believe she tried it before, when you first came here, to persuade him to take you from me, but he paid her no mind, threatening her into submission."

"Oh," Persephone's mind was strangely blank, appalled at the deaths she had inadvertently caused.

"Don't worry, my dear, it was not your fault, none of this is," Hades reassured her, somehow knowing exactly what she was thinking. Persephone knew that, of course, he was wrong, as most all of this was most definitely her fault, but she let it go, unwilling to risk her relationship by telling him that she had not wanted him when she first came to be his wife. Instead, she changed the subject.

"How can you be so sure they will not just take me?" she asked, genuinely worried about her own safety. She hated the idea of going back to that tower, with nothing but her thoughts and the occasional whisper from a servant to keep her company.

"He will not because I have warned him that if he does, then I shall release the souls I have in my possession here in the underworld onto the mountain of the gods, I do not know why I didn't think of it before," Hades hid a ruthless grin in her hair, not wanting to show her that some of his sadistic act was not a ruse.

"Oh," Persephone said again, keeping her mind away from thoughts of the destruction her fiancée was willing to cause, instead focusing on the upcoming meeting, "Come then, my love, if we are to meet my parents, then we must look our best, mustn't we?" she asked with a sly grin up at him, before leading him by the hand out of the library and towards their bedchamber.

* * *

Demeter waited nervously in the clearing, Zeus two steps in front and to the side of her. Her fair hair was piled in braids atop her head, and she wore a long, royal purple robe, trimmed in gold. It was a little extravagant for her tastes, but Zeus had insisted, and she was not much in the mood to argue about the clothes she wore, too anxious about the results of the upcoming reunion. Zeus was similarly dressed, though he had forgone a full length robe for a gold wrap, tied around his waist, leaving his sculpted chest on show. Her husband's white blonde hair was shining in long locks, floating gently in the slight breeze. He seemed to feel, Demeter thought spitefully, that he could get what he wanted on pure looks alone. As though that would ever work with his brother and daughter.

Speaking of Persephone and Hades, they had just stepped through the entrance, into the light of the clearing, she realised with a start. The goddess had been so caught up in her inner monologue that she had missed their arrival, though she now noticed that they had had the same thoughts on the meeting as Zeus, and dressed their best.

Persephone's hair was left in long waves down her back, two strands pulled from the front and clipped behind her head. She wore a long, thin gown of cream, with a plunging neckline and a slit up to her thigh. The golden glow she had possessed a year ago was completely gone, her skin bleached by her long incarceration, and yet it suited her, somehow giving her even more of an unearthly beauty than she had had before. It was somewhat unnerving, especially as Persephone was coupling it with a cruel smile, making her look the part of a predator, and causing Demeter to feel as though she were the prey.

Hades, for his part, looked more handsome than Demeter could ever remember seeing him before. His thin, dark hair was pushed back from his face for once, the flyaway locks dancing lazily around his head, creating the effect of a dark halo. It was only fitting, she supposed. Without his hair over his face, Demeter realised that he had more than a slight resemblance to Zeus, whilst his eyes were the same as her own. Sometimes she forgot that the three of them were brothers and sister, but it was at times like this that the fact of it hit her hard. A black robe tied around his waist, the top half left to hang off of the god's hips, displaying a torso just as impressive as Zeus', whilst long slits up the sides showed off his muscular thighs. Obviously, Persephone had dressed him, as before this shocking display, Demeter had never seen Hades without layers of black rags and robes.

"Father, mother," Persephone cooed sweetly, smiling vampirically at them both, "how lovely to see you, it feels like an absolute age. Or, it feels like six months, I suppose." An awkward silence followed this pronouncement, Demeter dwelling on the guilt she felt for her daughter's imprisonment (and consequential near-death experience), and Zeus seething at the lack of respect his annoying daughter was already displaying, so early in the meeting. The silence was broken by Hades, who, it appeared, had not felt the awkwardness of the situation (or, and this was more likely, simply did not care), as he stood casually by his fiancée's side, one arm draped around her waist.

"So, a compromise? Tell me, what is it you think you can bribe us with?" Hades smirked slightly at the last, showing his siblings that they hadn't fooled him in the least.

"Yes. We get her for six months, and you get her for the other six," Zeus stated bluntly, directly addressing Hades, as though Persephone was not even present.

"I don't think so," Persephone hissed, her tone dangerous, though the vampire- smile had disappeared from her face.

"And neither do I," Hades agreed in icy tones, stepping forwards so that he was between Persephone and her parents, glaring at them as if he was daring them to try and take his fiancée from him.

"Well, we do," Zeus answered calmly, smiling blandly as though he were at a tea party, "and it will happen, don't you worry, I'm sure you'll agree eventually."

"And how, exactly, do you believe you will get us to agree with this farce?" Persephone asked scornfully, pushing in front of Hades so that she could address her parents directly. Hades stepped up next to her, and she felt a bristle of annoyance that he felt the need to protect her all the time; she could take care of herself sometimes, and he would do well to remember it. This was not the time for such a confrontation, however, as they must present a united front against her damned parents. Later, when they were alone, and all this was over with, she would be having some words with him.

Zeus leered at his insolent daughter, unhappy that he was being forced to compromise with the brat. But this was the easiest way out of the whole mess, and, to be frank, he was growing evermore bored of the entire thing.

"Because if you agree to this, we will allow you to marry your beloved Hades again, and for the six months you live with your _king _in the underworld, we will leave you to live in peace. If you do not agree to the compromise, then we will hound you every single day of your existence. We will never leave you alone until we have taken you from him, until you are back in that tower chamber, back where you belong," Zeus spoke lowly, threateningly, as he stepped closer to his daughter, pushing his head down until his nose was within centimetres of hers so that she could have no way of missing the power he allowed to radiate out from his being.

Persephone refused to back away from him though, unwilling to give him the upper hand, to allow him to know that he had intimidated her. This, however, only caused Zeus to become more annoyed, and for a second, a glimmer of a thunderbolt could be seen in his fist, before the image flickered out and he whirled around, storming away to stand next to his wife once more.

"And the six months she is with you? You will put her in that tower once more? I cannot believe that you would think we would ever agree to that!" Hades exclaimed, disbelief shattering the glare that had, up until now, been set firmly upon his face.

"Of course not!" Demeter spoke for the first time, though, from the angry glance Zeus sent her way, it was obvious to Hades and Persephone that she had not been supposed to speak at all.

"What shall happen to me, then? If I stay with you for six months, there's a risk that I won't survive it!" Persephone asked, missing the surprised look her fiancée gave her.

"So you are considering our offer then?" Zeus asked, a small smirk beginning to grow on his lips, all of his previous anger seemingly gone.

"Perhaps," Persephone whispered. Hades forgot all about presenting a united front, and grabbed her arm, pulling her back, out of earshot of her parents.

"What?" he hissed, angrily, "You are considering it? How can you even think about leaving me for six months? And that's without even mentioning the fact that you could die, if they keep you even one day too long! What are you thinking?" Persephone shrank slightly under his gaze for a minute, before pulling herself together and adopting a defiant expression.

"You heard my father!" she shot back, wrenching her arm from his grip, which had been growing steadily tighter, "this offer is the best we can hope for! We will be married, and we will be left alone for half the year. It is either that, or constantly have our marriages dissolved, and be in continuous threat of attack!" Tears sprung to Persephone's eyes as she spoke, hating that spending only half the year with her love was her best hope for her future.

"We can run from them, we can find a way to be safe, together," Hades murmured, stroking her cheek gently with the pad of his thumb, wiping away her tears.

"I can't live that that, Hades my love, and neither can you," the young goddess admitted reluctantly, "you have duties, and when I am your queen again, I too will have responsibilities, and we cannot ignore them. This is the best chance we can hope to be offered, and we would be fools not to take it!" With that, she pulled her face from her fiancée's grip and walked quickly to her parents, before Hades could realise what she was doing and stop her.

"Do you swear that for the six months I am away from my home, I shall have my freedom?" Persephone asked, knowing that if they did not agree to this that she could not stand to go along with the plan.

"We swear. You shall live as you did before any of this happened, so long as you don't step foot near the underworld, or near Hades," her mother said quickly, before Zeus could speak.

"Then I shall agree to your terms," Persephone grabbed Demeter's hand, and shook it, sealing their deal before anything could be disputed by the two males present.

A slight gold shimmer formed around their hands, making it official, before Demeter let go, a frosty aura forming around the elder goddess's figure.

Furious, Hades stormed forwards and grabbed his fiancée's arm, dragging her back down into the cave, and into his control once more.

"See you in six months," the mocking voice of Zeus followed them down, echoing against the cave walls, and repeating itself, increasing Hades' rage until he could barely control himself.

* * *

A/N: Last chapter! Don't lynch me, the myth told me to do it :) Epilogue will be up tomorrow :)


	22. Epilogue

Epilogue

He was watching her again.

Watching as she walked away from him, strands of her fair hair trailing behind her, floating gently in the breeze blowing in from the cave entrance. He could no longer see her blue eyes; he had lost their mirthful beauty for another six months. Her previously olive skin had a pasty glow to it, its colour having been bleached by the months she had spent with him, at home, in the depths of the underworld. But even as she walked away from him, she looked the very epitome of loveliness and perfection, just as she always had been, and always would be, at least to him.

He watched as her head arched backwards as she reached the opening that led to the outside; the sunlight which bathed the clearing beyond the cave shone down on her, illuminating her face, which was twisted in a grim laugh, stuck as she was between extreme misery and joy. All he could think as tears cascaded down his face was that he wished that her laugh could be real and genuine, and that its beautiful peals of mirth could be sounded where it belonged, by his side. She looked back, just once, but hidden as he was, deep within the shadows of the cave, she could not see him. And illuminated in sunlight as she was, he could not see the tears covering her face as she gave her home one final glance before she left for another six months of solitude. His goddess was leaving him, his queen, his wife, his only girl. And Hades could do nothing but watch and allow his heart to crumble again (though it had crumbled so many times over the years that he doubted there was much of it left to break).

Sometimes, in the early years, a fantasy had plagued his mind. In his fantasy, Persephone had never agreed to her father's offer, and they had run away together, to spend the rest of eternity in hiding, safe from the control of Zeus and Demeter. In his fantasy, they were happy. But these days, he had managed to push such dreams from his mind, choosing instead to focus on reality. And in reality, she had agreed to the offer, and Hades was forced to watch her leave once a year.

When he looked at himself, thin black hair pulled back into a ponytail (Persephone's influence), pale, sallow skin stretched across his prominent bones, he knew that even half a year spent with a beautiful, wonderful woman who loved him was far more than he deserved, and yet he couldn't stop himself from wanting more. From wanting a full-time wife, rather than this half life that had been forced on him. If he didn't love his young goddess so much, he would perhaps have paused to wonder if it wouldn't be better to abandon their attempt at a life together, and find other lovers, whom maybe fate would not frown upon so much. But he was too far in to even realise that such a possibility existed.

"ARGH!" he let out a bellow, half rage, half all-consuming grief, before he punched his hand into the cave wall, crumbling some of the stone, relishing in the pain that shot through his clenched fist. He allowed the rage to overcome his grief, shivering in pleasure as he felt the anger surge through his veins.

For the next six months, he was the king of the underworld, the king everyone expected him to be: sadistic, cruel and ruthless. He would punish those humans deserving of it, and he would relish their pain, taking pleasure in their screams and moans. All happy feelings would be forcefully cast out of his being, replaced with hate and anger and disgust.

He was Hades, and for the next six months, he did not love her.

* * *

'Your beauty will be your curse', her mother had once told her, and as she sat in the meadow, amidst flowers and grass and insects, she wondered if perhaps her mother had not been right that day, long ago. If she had been born ugly, or even with average looks, then perhaps none of this would have happened. Zeus would have had no interest in her, as she would have had nothing to offer prospective husbands, for her beauty had always been her only power over men, and without it, Zeus would not have been able to use her as a weapon. She would never have been so vain and spoilt, for she would have grown up as her mother's daughter, rather than her father's. She would not have met Hades, maybe, but without her love of the handsome god, then she would not be in any of this mess, though she did not blame him for her circumstances, of course. And although she would not go back and change it now, she could not help herself from wondering what life would be like had none of it happened. Would she be happy, or would she have never found love at all?

But no, she mustn't dwell on such thoughts. She loved her husband, with all her heart, and however much happier she could have been without him, she would not trade her life now for anything, no matter how miserable her forced vacations made her. She sighed and lay back, allowing herself to enjoy the feel of the sun on her face and of the cool breeze, although it insisted on catching strands of her white blonde hair and depositing them in her mouth. Irritated, she sat up, pulling her hair into a loose braid which fell down her back to her waist.

"Hades," she murmured lowly to herself, remembering how he always loved to do her hair for her when she was with him in the underworld. No, she told herself sternly, don't think of him, for it will only make you more miserable. And yet it was a pointless attempt, as all she had to do with her time on the mountain of the gods was to sit in the sun and think of her beloved husband.

Well, that and spend time with her mother, though she tried not to do that too much these days. In the early years, she had been able to act the happy daughter that Demeter expected, but she found it much harder now to pretend, the constant separations and reunions were wearing her down, and she spent almost all her time in a constant state of tiredness. Her mother, Persephone knew, had always acted with the best of intentions, which was exactly what she had continued doing. She seemed to believe that Persephone's subtle rejections of the older goddess was merely her reverting back to the way she had been before Hades, to when she had been selfish, egotistical, and paranoid that her mother would try and sabotage her life. And whilst this should have caused Demeter to worry, it only seemed to cause her contentment, as she thought that so long as her daughter was happy, it was of no concern what personality faults she regained.

But no matter, Persephone thought, as she lay back in the grass, sun pounding down on her face, beginning to give her pale skin back some of its colour. Her pale blue robe pooled around her on the grass, matching the colour of her ice-blue eyes perfectly. She had only six months to go, and then she would be back with her husband once more.

A slightly hysterical laugh slipped from her lips at the thought; only six months to go.

* * *

Zeus lounged in his throne, high up on the mountain of the gods. His tanned, muscular torso was bare, and his white blonde hair (rather longer than it used to be) spilt over his shoulders in perfect waves onto the king's sculpted chest. His ice-blue eyes glinted in amusement as a serving girl fed him a grape, and for a second the resemblance between father and daughter could be seen. The moment passed, however, and the amusement passed to become something harder, colder. His trademark smirk was set firmly on his face, and a deep throated, rumbling laugh could often be heard escaping his lips and echoing around the main hall of the palace, which was where he spent the majority of his time.

He hadn't seen his wife in months. He had little need to see her anymore, not since he had assigned her a new chamber away from his own, years ago. Over the years, he had only very occasionally been bored enough to visit her in her chamber, and torture her until he was amused again. It was an arrangement that suited him perfectly (although he had not bothered to ask if it was alright for her), and it would continue to suit him, until he felt the need to marry another. And then he would cast Demeter out, though where she would then go, he simply didn't care enough to wonder.

Zeus was still a proud man, that had not changed (and likely never would), and he made sure that his entire kingdom knew of the wrongs that his wife had done him, and equally made sure that they knew how she was punished. That way, none of them would ever dare to defy him as she had, and he could live in peace, without threats to his throne or himself.

His daughter on the other hand, still owned the favour of the court of the gods, pitied as she was for being married to Hades, and for _having _to live with him, in his underworld for half the year. And so Zeus had been unable to punish her outright, though he was sure that her forced separation from her _beloved _husband was punishment enough.

Oh yes, that was possibly his most masterful plan yet (he now maintained that it was his plan all along, and not merely a compromise- compromises were weakness, and Zeus was anything but weak). Even better than merely leaving her in that tower (though he still made her sleep there), because this way she had a glimpse of happiness. For six months a year, she was given hope, only to have it stripped ruthlessly from her when it came time for her to leave the underworld. It was the pain of heartbreak, but over and over and over again, and it was perfect for her. The fact that Demeter was always so incredibly unhappy when her daughter became ill and had to leave again was just an added bonus, the cherry on top of the already perfect cake.

He opened his mouth slightly to allow the serving girl to place another grape in it and smiled a genuine smile of pleasure, for once. Life was good for the king of the gods, and he couldn't think of a thing that could possibly make it any better.

After all, he had all the power he could want, he had the love of virtually every god in the realm, he had a miserable wife and daughter, and his brother was as hated as ever.

No, nothing could be better for Zeus right now.

* * *

Deep in a sun-lit forest, a tall, elegant goddess stood, her back straight and her head held high. Her long, wheat- coloured hair was piled in braids on top of her head, though a few strands had worked their way free and hung loose, floating lazily in some imaginary breeze. A long, dark red cloak sat around her shoulders, suffocating her figure and pooling around her feet like a puddle of blood. She breathed deeply of the forest air, revelling in the sense of calm that had settled around her. The frosty, numbing aura she had been emitting for the last six months had almost fully evaporated, replaced by her usual one of old- of light and joy and growth.

She was unable to control it anymore; what she felt, that is. When her daughter was gone from her, the feelings of guilt and depression caught up with her, and the humans suffered for it. But she found herself uncaring of what they went through, uncaring that some of them had died because of her, because whatever they were suffering she was suffering ten times as much. And so she froze them, and the sense of bitterness and spite which had been budding within her ever since Zeus had given her daughter away grew with each passing year, until she had grown to almost enjoy the deaths that she inadvertently caused. Almost.

But when Persephone was back (and although Demeter knew it was an enforced return, she liked to pretend that her daughter had returned out of love for her mother, out of a want to be home in the palace), a sense of calm settled over her and she felt peace again. Persephone was where she belonged; she was home and safe and away from Hades and everything was fine.

This lack of control over her feelings scared her occasionally, in her more lucid moments. She had such little control over anything anymore, that to lose herself as well was a terrifying blow. Most of the time, however, she was too lost in her overwhelming emotions to realise that anything was wrong.

She took another deep breath of the fresh forest air and sighed in satisfaction. She lived for these moments, these days. The moments when she could live like her life was perfect, like her husband loved her and her daughter cared about her well being. Like she wished it was.

She didn't run anymore. She hadn't been a mare in a long time, and in fact was beginning to think (when she actually found a moment to remember such things as this) that she had lost the skill needed to complete the transformation. But it did not matter whether she could or not, as she had no interest in the wildness that becoming the horse brought with it, no interest in feelings the earth pounding beneath her hooves, nor the wind whipping roughly through her mane. No, this was a memento of her old life, when she had needed to run, to hide. But now she had no need for such desperate measures, as she had her home and she would never run from it again.

Demeter's life was despair and lies, these days (but she knew deep down that she had brought it on herself).

* * *

A/N: Aaaaand, we're done!

I _may _do the same kind of thing for some other myths at some point, but I haven't decided which ones yet. In the mean time, I have several ideas for more Harry Potter fanfic that will be getting written at some point or other.

A final thank you for all of the lovely reviews, and I hope you all enjoyed the story :)


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